Ice Princess
by KilalaInara
Summary: Ashe Taro may not be all that she seems but to speak of her past could mean life or death. She joins the Bladebreakers with her best friend Kai but, something still seems to be missing in her heart that her bitbeast hopes she'll soon find. rated for lang.
1. A Bird That Sings Before The Dawn

DISCLAIMER: I OWN NOTHING OF BEYBLADE! I ONLY REALLY OWN JUST ASHE HERSELF. HER BITBEAST ANIVIA, ISN'T MINE. SHE WAS FIRST AND FORMOST CREATED AS A CHARACTER TO PLAY IN THE GAME LEAGUE OF LEGENDS BUT SHE'S JUST SO AWESOME BUT AGAIN I DON'T CLAIM HER AS MY OWN! I'M TRYING TO NOT COPY THE DIALOGUE FROM BEYBLADE BUT I'M ALSO TRYING TO MAKE SURE THAT I DON'T MAKE KAI SOUND LIKE AN IDIOT.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: I want to make a HUGE shout out to HotaruTheChainMaster who got me back into writing and wanted me to get this story out.

I stood near the playground, hidden in the shadows of the sunset watching Carlos lose a beybattle to some rookie. As everyone was celebrating, Carlos grabbed the bag of blades he had won and prepared to hightail his ass outta there but he stopped short. As everyone turned and looks up, they saw Kai standing at the top of the hill with his trademark expression of anger and disappointment. He leapt down and approached the shaking Carlos.

'Looks like Carlos is gettin' the boot, eh Anivia?'

'_Indeed Mistress.'_

"You've proven yourself unworthy, Carlos." Kai declared as he stepped on Carlos's blade and then backhanded him. 'Ouch.' As Kai turned to leave, the rookie stopped him. "Hold on, just who do you think you are?" Kai glanced over his shoulder. "The name is Kai. I'm leader of the Blade Sharks, kid." The 'kid', who was apparently called Tyson, challenged Kai to a battle, which Kai accepted after showing his Dranzer blade. Kai launched his blade with such force that Tyson's extra long cord and his running start seemed almost too weak to compare. The two blades clashed and I could see the look on Tyson's face was that he thought he was going to win. 'But he's going to be sorely mistaken.'

"Oh I get it now. Kai's beyblade is feeding off the energy of Tyson's blade." The kid with the laptop said.

'Bingo, kid.' Dranzer flew in the air.

"Finish him!" Tyson cried but Kai only smirked. "Battle's only just begun." The quick as a flash, Dranzer came down hard, shattering Tyson's puny blade to pieces. Dranzer retreated back to Kai's hand as Tyson fell to his knees in defeat.

"You see Carlos, if you learn how to feed off your opponents strength, you win." Kai stated.

"I'm surprised you didn't play with him a while before you killed him." I stated aloud as I made my way over to the dish. Everyone's eyes turned to me as Kai just smirked again. "Unlike you Ashe, I don't torture my opponent before I end them." I stood beside Kai, smirking myself.

"And just who are you?" Tyson asked, angry that his beyblade was trashed.

"I'm Ashe, Kai's right hand man of the Blade Sharks." I stated, the wind blowing my hair and trench coat behind me.

"But…you're a girl." Tyson stuttered like he couldn't comprehend the information I just shared. I pulled out my launcher which was an actual gun that I modified to be my launcher. I loved to intimidate my opponents by pulling this out.

"Is there a problem with me being a girl who beyblades?" I asked menacingly. Tyson started shaking and it looked like he was gonna piss is pants. I smirked at his reaction and placed my launcher back in its holster.

"I thought not. Let's go Carlos." Kai, Carlos and I left the playground and went back to the abandoned building we used as our HQ. It had a giant beydish that we used to either practice or punish.

Two days later, Kai and I stood in the rafters and watched amusingly at Carlos's attempt to apologize for what happened with Tyson.

"Please Kai, Ashe! I'm sorry!"

"You have embarrassed the Blade Sharks, we have never lost a match." Kai stated coldly while two guys held Carlos in place as 3 of the Blade Sharks launched their blades at Carlos's spinning blade.

"This is your punishment for failing." I stated as Carlos pleaded with us to stop. Kai just smirked as the three blades closed in for the kill. The pressure of their combined force, completely obliterated the blade. The two boys hauled Carlos away as the three retrieved their blades from the dish.

"Have we heard anything new about the blade we've been searching for?" Once of the boys mentioned the kid with the laptop and how he knew a lot about beyblading.

"My sources tell me he and a bunch of other people are building an ultimate beyblade. If you want, we could…check it out." Kai gave the ok, and they disappeared with some rope. They came back almost an hour later with a struggling Chief and his laptop. They set him down and opened the laptop, only to hear a voice.

"Welcome, you've got mail." It was a woman's voice but it didn't sound like one you'd normally hear in a laptop.

"Please! Gimme back my laptop!" Stewart tried to see what he could find but his face came up blank.

"But you're supposed to know everything there is to know about blading." Stewart complained.

"I do know everything about beyblading but you'll never get it outta me." I leapt down from the rafters and took the computer.

"Hey!" Stewart complained but I just shoved him away. "Shut up and sit down." I commanded as I began to actually brousing the laptop.

"Wow, you really seem to know your way around a harddrive." The computer voice spoke, causing me to freeze for a second. "Uh, thanks I guess…Who are you anyway?"

"The name's Dizzi, short for Dizzara, Keeper of All Knowledge in Beyblade at your service and might I ask who you are?"

"Ashe of the Blade Sharks." I replied, pulling up the most recent video of a beybattle which was Tyson and Kai. But before I could even start watching, the door to the werehouse opened and there stood Tyson with a bunch of other kids.

"Get your filthy hands off 'a him!" The red caped boy declared. Numerous Blade Sharks came and prepared to launch their blades when Kai stopped them.

"Wait! I'll take it from here."

"But Kai-" Stewart began to protest but I interrupted.

"Zip it Stewart." I commanded as I took Dizzi and Kenny to the upper level while Kai and Tyson took their places on opposite sides of the beydish. Stewart started the countdown and the two blades launched. They clashed and it seemed like this battle was going to be a repeat of 2 days ago. Dranzer was high in the air, getting ready to come down on Tyson's blade when it started to spin in a circle creating a cyclone. Dranzer bounced off the top and again, Tyson thought he'd won.

"If you think this fight's over, you're sorely mistaken! Battle on, Dranzer!" Dranzer obeyed and continued to bash against Tyson's blade.

'_Mistress, I sense the presence of another bitbeast. It seems to be eminating from Tyson's blade, though I cannot tell which one.'_ Anivia spoke. Hearing her words, I pulled out a flash drive and plugged it into Dizzi.

"Ok, Dizzi, let's copy some of the beybattle videos and put them on my flash drive."

"You got it Ashe. I gotta say, it's nice to meet a girl who knows her way with a computer and a beyblade."

I said nothing as I proceeded to copy the files while watching Kai's and Tyson's battle. Kai's blade began to glow red, signaling that Dranzer was readying for his final attack.

"Battle on, Dranzer!"

However the strangest thing happened. Tyson's blade began to glow and two bitbeasts from the two blades emerged simultaneously, encircling one another.

'_Mistress, that strange presence I sensed is that of Dragoon. He seems to have become Tyson's bitbeast.'_

'Interesting.'

The two beasts clashed, cracking the blades and sending them from the ring.

"Did you see the Dragoon, it smashed head on into that birdy-thingy!"

'Birdy-thingy?' I growled.

'_Calm down Mistress. He doesn't know any better.'_

"Your blue dragon and my red phoenix are trapped within out blades. They're powered by incredible forces but not every blade can contain the beasts. Ours are special. You're is powered by Dragoon and my power is of Dranzer." As Kai was explaining, Chief was complaining about being tied up. I cut him loose and checked up on Dizzi.

"How's the downloading coming, Dizzi?"

"We're all set, Ashe." I unplugged my flashdrive and handed Dizzi back to Chief. Kai began to walk away from the beydish with Dranzer in his hand. Tyson tried to go after him but became surrounded by the Blade Sharks with their launchers ready.

"Enough!" I shouted as I leapt down from the rafters. "Let them go. We have no more quarrel with them." I snapped my fingers and they retreated. "Go Tyson and take care in the future." I said, heading in the same direction as Kai. He was going to need me to fix his blade, now that it was cracked. I found him in the back room fiddling with his cracked attack ring.

"Kai, gimme Dranzer before you make it worse." Kai scoffed as he handed me his blade. Kai only trusted me to handle or even touch his blade. Anyone else would be lucky to launch a blade again. As I took Dranzer's bitchip out of the attack ring he felt warm in my palm, a normal feeling especially after a battle. However, not 3 seconds after I took Dranzer's chip out did the attack ring fully break.

"Damn, that Tyson did a number on my work. We've got two weeks until the Qualifier Tournament. With my new blade designs, you'll be the reining champ once again." I declared to Kai as I took Dranzer's blade completely apart. I pulled out my I-POD and began listening to Stay Forever and Simple and Clean. As I began gathering the parts, I uploaded to battle videos to the old computer that we used that I copied from Dizzi. As I built Dranzer and Anivia new blades, I modified them based on the videos. Now they would move better, attack better and defend better than before.

'Ready to kick some loser ass in the future, Anivia?'

'_Always ready Mistres,s and Master Kai seems all too eager as well.'_

'Excellent. With my new blade designs, there's no way Kai will lose.' I said while admiring my handiwork. 'Just you wait Tyson. If you think you've seen it all, you haven't seen anything yet'. I placed Dranzer's chip in the attack ring and went to find Kai who had left the room while I worked. I found him at the 'Secret Spot'. He found it not too long ago and I followed him to it one night so it was his finding. It was a small little place on the hill which overlooked the ocean. Absolutly georgeous…expecially at sunset and sunrise. I always do my training here because it's so peaceful. Kai was laying in the middle of the hill, underneath the lone willow tree. He sat up when he heard my footsteps.

"Any luck?"

"All the luck in the world won't be able to stop you in the Qualifier. Not with this new blade I've designed. All the recent modifications are based on the video's I copied from the laptop. You're going to wipe the floor with this new blade." I sat beside him and handed him the new blade while Kai smirked.

"This year Ashe, I want you to enter the competition." This surprised me. I've participated in tournaments before and have never lost, only to Kai a ser few times. The majority of our battles ended in a draw with our blade's shattered. Whenever Kai needed to let out some steam or test out a new move, he asked me and I'm always ready to oblige. But what Kai just asked of me was shocking.

"Really Kai?"

"Yes. You're the only person I can trust and the only one who I consider a worthy opponent. Enter the Qualifier and battle your way to the finals where we'll meet and truly battle against one another."

"Alright Kai."

'This is going to turn into something big. I can feel it.'

'_Yes Mistress, change is in the air. However, it's hard to say what is going to change.'_

Stay Forever-Delain

Simple and Clean-Utada Hikaru

AUTHOR'S SECOND NOTE: I KNOW IT MIGHT SEEM LIKE SHE'S MARY SUE BUT I HAVE NEVER SEEN A CHARACTER BUILT LIKE I DID ASHE SO PLEASE...NO FLAMES!


	2. Heated Freeze

DISCLAIMER: I OWN NOTHING OF BEYBLADE! I ONLY REALLY OWN JUST ASHE HERSELF. HER BITBEAST ANIVIA, ISN'T MINE. SHE WAS FIRST AND FORMOST CREATED AS A CHARACTER TO PLAY IN THE GAME LEAGUE OF LEGENDS BUT SHE'S JUST SO AWESOME BUT AGAIN I DON'T CLAIM HER AS MY OWN! I'M TRYING TO NOT COPY THE DIALOGUE FROM BEYBLADE BUT I'M ALSO TRYING TO MAKE SURE THAT I DON'T MAKE KAI SOUND LIKE AN IDIOT.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: I want to thank all my fans who added this story to their favorites or their alerts list! Check out my profile to see what other future stories are upcoming that you might be interested in!

Two weeks had come and gone quite fast. The day before the Qualifier, Kai and I launched our blades to test the stamina. Dranzer and Anivia spun for almost 10 minutes before some Blade Sharks members launched their blades. They were repelled instantly with one touch as Dranzer and Anivia still spun as if they were just launched. They came back to our hands and I smiled widely.

"Seems your new blades are ready to withstand anything Ashe, well done." Kai complimented which he did once in a blue moon.

"Thanks Kai."

The next day, we went straight to the BeyDome and looked at the placing roster.

"Looks like I'm in Block A and you're in Block C." I noted as my eyes scanned the lists of names.

"Yes and take a look. Tyson's in Block D." Kai noted as my fingers scanned over his name.

"That means you'll have a clear shot to face him in the finals." Kai and I headed to the locker room which started filling with other kids who were here to compete.

'Pft…These fools don't stand a chance against me or Kai. By the end of this whole endeavor, Kai will continue to be the reigning champ.'

"WILL THOSE IN BLOCK A, PLEASE REPORT TO THE STADIUM" The commentator announced over the loud system.

"Well that's my queue to kick ass." Kai clapped a hand on my shoulder.

"I'd wish you luck Ashe, but you're not going to need it." As I made my way to the stadium, I passed a bunch of the other competitors . They looked at me weird and whispered to their neighbor competitors.

"What's a girl like that doing here?"

"I heard she got into the competition using her body."

"I head she's Kai's girlfriend."

"Yeah either that or his sex bitch."

It took much of my strength and soothing, comforting words from Anivia to keep from bashing all their heads in.

'_Don't let them get to you Mistress. You know that nothin__g they say is true. If it will make you feel better, I can smash all their blades to pieces.'_ I smiled at the suggestion.

'Do it. Give them hell and show that we are not to be underestimated _ever_ again.' I could feel my pocket turn cold at Anivia's enthusiasm. I stood at the dish and pulled out Anivia before pulling out my gun launcher. The others started shaking as I loaded her where the ammo would go and cocked the gun.

"BLADERS! ON YOUR MARK…GET SET…3…2….1…LET IT RIP!" DJ announced as I pulled the trigger, sending Anivia into the dish.

Almost immediately, the other blades fell victim to Anivia as they began shattering one by one. Within less than 10 seconds, all blades except for mine had been completely trashed to pieces. The crowd gasped at what just happened.

"Well it seems that our winner of Block A is Ashe who won the match in less than 10 seconds!"

The crowd cheered and began chanting my name as Anivia retreated to my hand. I holstered my 'gun' and walked out of the stadium without a word. Kai ran into me in the hallway.

"I thought you were going to play with them before destroying them all maliciously. What happened?"

"They whispered things that pissed off so I showed no mercy. End of story." I answered and Kai said nothing more. We headed into the sands to watch the match for Block B. The winner was an energetic, blond haired half American, half Japanese kid named Max.

"Oh please. Like the world seriously needs another perky kid." I muttered under my breath.

"WILL ALL PARTICIPANTS IN BLOCK C PLEASE REPORT TO THE STADIUM?" Kai and I stood without a word and headed down. I stood back in the hall and watched as Kai took his place at the dish. I saw also that the Chief was in this block.

'How does that kid expect to even stand a smidgen of a chance with Kai if his bitbeast is trapped in his computer?'

The answer became semi-clear after Kai began taking out all the other blades. The Chief's blade had a spring loaded bounce…that is until Dranzer trashed it, leaving the Chief disappointed. Hearing footsteps behind me, I saw Tyson run out in anger to the Chief and then turned to Kai who was walking back towards me.

"Tyson, it's not worth getting disqualified! I lost fair and square." The Chief admitted as he and that Max kid held Tyson back.

Block D competitors were called in so Tyson was left alone by the others. Again, Kai and I took our seats in the stands. Not only was Tyson in this group but so was Carlos, Stewart and 2 other members from the Blade Sharks. Once the match started, the 4 Blade Sharks and Tyson quickly became the only ones left in the dish so DJ called for a stop to clean the dish of the busted blades from the dish.

"Does Carlos really think that he can build a better blade in just 2 weeks when Tyson didn't have a bitbeast last time they battled?" Kai didn't answer my question but then again, I didn't expect him to. We watched as Carlos knocked the other Blade Sharks's blades from the dish.

"Now it seems things will get interesting." Kai smirked as Carlos began focusing his assault at Tyson. But just like before, Tyson knocked Carlos's blade from the dish and almost immediately the other Blade Sharks rounded on him.

"You'll pay for what you did to us Carlos! The Blade Sharks will never forgive you for this!" Stewart cried out in rage and he and his friends collected the pieces of their blades.

"Every battle we have is survival of the fittest. Kai and Ashe taught us that but you three just completely forgot about that!" Carlos yelled.

Tyson approached Carlos and the two exchanged words though I couldn't hear what they were saying over the screaming crowds. But whatever they said put a smile across their faces.

"This is getting pathetic. How much longer am I going to have to endure all this idiocy?" I asked no one in particular, though this time Kai did answer.

"There's only one group left to go and then we can leave. I'm getting bored as well."

Luckily, the match didn't last very long as the winner was Ray Kon, a Chinese nekojin with long black hair that he kept tied with a white ribbon.

"He was part of the White Tigers in China." Kai informed me as we left the stadium. I had heard of the White Tigers and Ray with his bitbeast Drigger. Many beybladers had fallen victim to Ray's signature Tiger Claw attack.

The next day, Kai and I headed to the stadium and looked at the list of who was battling who.

"Looks like there's going to be a battle between B and C and then D and E. So you and Max, then Tyson and Ray. The winners of those two battles will face against the winner of A in a 3-way battle. So I'm going to be facing you and someone else in the finals." I assessed since I knew Kai was going to win. We headed into the locker room which luckily was empty.

"Good, some peace and quiet before the match." Kai seemed extremely pleased that we had the locker room to ourselves as he leaned up against the wall. I pulled out my I-POD and selected The Gathering. As the song rang through my earbuds and I closed my eyes, bobbing my head with the drums. As I lost myself in the song, I failed to realize that Kai and I were no longer the only ones in the locker room. When the song ended, I opened my eyes to see not only Tyson and the Chief but also Max and a bunch of other people holding food and drinks. There was a small banner that said 'Happy Birthday Tyson'. I pulled Kai down by his signature white scarf.

"Why didn't you tell me there were other people here?" I hissed at him while he just smirked like it was no big deal.

"You seemed so peaceful so I didn't want to disturb you." I continued to glare at him.

"Well that was real fuckin sweet of you but I wanna get out of here NOW!" I growled as Tyson came over.

"Hey Kai, Ashe want some cake?"

I just got up and walked out of the locker room without a word to anyone. Footsteps indicated that someone was following me and as I rounded the corner I caught the light blue hair of Kai. Once I got to the stadium, I stopped.

"Ashe, relax. Once the tournament is over, you won't have to be around so many people."

Being in big crowds or around a group of people in a closed space like the locker room made me really uncomfortable because I feel like they were all staring and judging me. Just like they always did. I sat on one of the sideline benches and started listening to Shattered. Before long, people began filing into the stands for the semifinals matches. Tyson, Max and the Chief came out on the other side of the arena. The announcer, DJ, came out.

"Alright Beyblade fan! Welcome to the semi finals of the Qualifier for the World Championships! First up we have Max vs our undefeated champion, Kai!

The crowd went wild as Kai and Max stepped up to the dish which revealed to be a big dish with and elevated tower.

"The object here is to get our blade into the top dish and stay there for 10 seconds. The best 2 of 3 battles will advance to the finals! Bladers are you ready?"

Kai and Max readied their launchers.

"3…2…1…LET IT RIP!"

The blades flew along the bottom of the dish before running along the top. Max got their first and Dranzer came in slamming down on top of him, winning the 1st session. And the second session began it almost in the same way.

'Kai's got this in the bag.' I thought but then Max's blade did something weird. It stopped spinning when Dranzer landed on top but it still stayed on it's tip. Then it started spinning in reverse, using Kai's energy against him. Dranzer stopped spinning and fell over.

"3…2….1…and Max is the winner of Round 2!"

Now I could see Kai's expression because his back was to me but from his clenched fists, it was clear that he was pissed. However Max's victory was short lived as his blade sort of self-destructed, launching at Max and colliding with the pendant around his neck.

'_Mistress, I sense the presence of__ another bitbeast coming from the pendant. It seems that boy, Max, will now have the spirit of Draciel in his blade.'_

'So now Kai will have the pleasure of defeating a bitbeast now. That should please him greatly.' I noted as I watched Max place the bitchip of Draciel in his blade and prepared to launch.

"Bladers, ready! 3…2…1..LET IT RIP!" Kai and Max launched their blades and they circled around the tower till they came to the top dish. There they collided and stood their ground as the 10 second count-down began. Neither blade would give way as the 10 seconds passed.

"That's it! We're going into over time!" DJ shouted and the blades glided into the bottom dish, circling one another before the thrashing began.

"Alright! Welcome Draciel!" Max's blade glowed magenta and a purplish pink ferocious turtle emerger, growling.

"Dranzer, finish him!" Kai called and his red phoenix emerged, shrieking into the stadium. Dranzer collided head on with Draciel, knocking him out of the ring.

"And moving on to the finals is our reigning champ, KAI!" DJ announced as the crowd cheered.

Kai turned and made his way back towards me when Max called out to him.

"Kai, hang on!" Max ran up with a big, goofy smile and held out his hand.

"Thanks Kai! That was an awesome battle. You really are a sweet blader."

Kai didn't shake hands, instead he turned again.

"Thanks I guess. Enjoy your birthday celebration Tyson but don't forget about your match. You're going to need all the luck can get." Kai warned as we walked out of the stadium and into the stands for the match between Tyson and Ray.

"Hopefully this won't take long. I wanna get back to training and away from all these damn people." I grumbled, Kai chuckling lightly.

"It won't be long now Ashe. Once I win the tournament, we can leave."

I scowled as the stands began to fill up in order to watch Tyson and Ray battle. DJ stood by the side of the dish.

"Alright beyblade fans! Let's get this match going! First, it's the rookie from outta nowhere, Tyson!" Tyson stepped forward and the crowd cheered.

"And his opponent, a blader who's here by personal invite of Mr. Dickinson himself, Ray!" The nekojin stepped forward as the crowd cheered for him too.

"Bladers, ready! 3…2…1…LET IT RIP!" As soon as the bladders were released, Tyson went on the attack.

"Let's go, Dragoon!" Ray dodged the attack easily with a bored look on his face.

"If that's all you got, then this'll be easier than I thought. Drigger, Tiger Claw Attack!" Ray's blade zoomed towards Dragoon and knocked it outta the dish like it was a measly little fly.

"I've heard about the infamous Tiger Claw Attack. Now we've seen it in action, we now have the advantage in battle." I whispered to Kai. He looked at me and smiled. "You're right, Ashe. And now he'll fall to the full power of our blades." We continued to watch as Ray turned to leave with an angry Tyson in tow.

"He's far too inferior and his blades broken. According to the rules, if he doesn't fix it soon the he forfeits. So I think I'm going to take a short nap."

Just when it looked like the match would be over, Kenny came rushing out of the stands carrying a box.

"Did someone say spare parts?"

"Alright! We'll take a short break so Tyson can fix his blade and then we'll get on with the match!" I groaned in my seat.

"Why can't these matches ever be quick and over with?"

However it didn't take Tyson long to fix his blade and within 2 minutes, the match watch was ready to begin again.

"Bladers, ready! 3…2…1…LET IT RIP!"

As Tyson and Ray launched, they began circling one another.

"Dragoon!" Tyson called and from his blade came a huge massive wind that began to create a tornado.

"Drigger, Tiger Claw Attack!"

The two blades seemed to disappear within the tornado and a blade was sent out of the ring towards Ray, tearing his headband a bit. DJ had to wait till the winds died down in order to make an official verdict.

"And the winner it….TYSON!" The crowd went absolutely nuts while I just shook my head.

"For the finals, it's a three way battle between Tyson, Ashe and our reigning champ, Kai!" I got up and left the stands before Ray and Tyson began talking while Kai followed close behind me.

I decked into the ladies room which was empty so I could have some peace and quiet. I pulled out my I-POD and listened to I Walk Alone. I took out Anivia and placed her on the counter while I splashed some cold water on my face. As the song coursed through my ears, I stared at my reflection. My two toned dark blue hair flowed behind my black trench coat, reaching down past my ass, almost to my knees. My black fingerless gloves matched my coat while my bejeweled sapphire eyes matched my heeled combat boots. The dark colors of my halter top and pants matched everything else about me. I was about to choose another song when I heard a knock on the door.

"Ashe, are you alright? The finals are about to start." Kai called from behind the door.

"Go on without me. I'll be right there." I shouted back. I listened and heard his footsteps retreating away from the door before I turned back to the mirror.

'Today, I will show them all what happens when they cross me.' I growled as I placed Anivia back in my pocket and headed out of the bathroom, towards the stadium where DJ was just introducing the compedators.

"Alright folks, let get this show on the road! Our three-way battle to determine this year's regional champion! First we have the rookie sensation, Tyson!" The grinning idiot stepped forward from the opposite side of the dish. "And next we have the beautiful, surprising Ashe!" The crowd chanted my name with hundreds of wolf whistles and cat calls following.

'Just ignore them, you're better than them.' I told myself as I resisted the urge to pull out my actual gun. Tyson sort of froze when he saw me which is just how I liked it.

"And our reigning champ, KAI!" Kai stepped up to the dish as the crowd practically screamed in joy. "This is a three-way battle for the championship title as a cage match!" Cage bars came down and surrounded us like they would in a wrestling match. I pulled out my launcher and Anivia as I saw Kai and Tyson do the same, though Tyson looked a bit freaked when he saw my launcher.

"Bladers, ready! 3…2…1..LET IT RIP!" I pulled the trigger and released Anivia into the dish with Dranzer and Dragoon.

"Dragoon, attack!" Dragoon immediately began attacking with a tornado, catching Kai off guard and blew him backwards slamming him against the cage bars.

"KAI! Stay strong Anivia!" I tried to focus on the battle but with what just happened to Kai got pushed to my first priority and Anivia flew past my face. I felt a slight sting across my cheek and when I placed my hand there, I felt blood. I turned to Kai who was standing, clutching Dranzer in one hand and Anivia in the other. He brought her over to me and handed her over without a word but I caught him looking at the cut I had just sustained. The three of us stood back around the dish.

"C'mon Kai, when are you gonna lighten up? You too, Ashe. When are you going to finally play and have fun?" I growled lowly at Tyson as Kai responded by taking off his red arm gauntlets, his ripped muscles bulged as they looked happy to be free from their restraints.

'Damn I love it when he does that! He looks so-NO! STOP THINKING LIKE THAT! FOCUS!' I yelled at myself mentally.

"You just don't understand Tyson. I don't play for fun. I compete for honor." Kai stated as he readied himself.

"As do I." I answered back as I readied our launchers.

"Round 2! Bladers, ready! 3…2..1…LET IT RIP!" I shot Anivia into the dish again and Dragoon stood ready.

"Attack!" Tyson yelled and once again, Dragoon created a tornado.

"Stay strong, Anivia!"

"Dranzer, attack! Fire Arrow!"

"Anvia, combine with Glacial Storm!" Almost immediately, the tornado became engulfed in flames and shards of ice as our two blades came smashing down on Tyson's, knocking him from the ring. Our blades came back to our hands as we readied for the final launch.

'I won't let Kai down.' I though as the three of us launched our blades for the last time.

"Anivia, don't give him an opening! Attack now!"

"Go Dranzer!"

"Go get 'em Dragoon!"

All three of our blades thrust forward and collided head on, creating a blinding explosion.

"Anivia!"

There was no answer as I shielded my face from the debris, feeling more small cuts start to form. When the light vanished, I looked into the dish to see – NOTHING! Our blades were gone, there was just a lot of over-turned rock and rubble.

"Hey up there!" Tyson pointed up in the sky. Kai and I looked up to see all three of our blades in the air, still spinning. The closer they came back to the ground, the more nervous I became.

'Oh no, they're too far apart! I screamed mentally as I saw both Dranzer and Anivia land outside the dish, still spinning while Dragoon landed inside. 'NO! This can't be right!' I was practically shaking as Anivia glided over to my feet so I bent down and picked her up, grasping her tightly. 'I'm sorry Anivia. I failed you and Kai.' Kai picked up Dranzer, still in shock at what just happened.

"That's it! We have a new champion, Tyson!" The cages opened up and I turned to leave but was stopped by a spotlight on me. "And let's hear it for the second place finishers, Kai and Ashe!" The crowd screamed as Mr. Dickinson came over to the three of us with Ray, Max and the Chief behind him.

"Congradulations to the three of you. That was a spectacular performance." The old man complimented. "And it's just was the team will need for the World Tournament."

"Woah, woah, woah. Team?" I asked.

"Yes Ashe. I believe that the 5 of you has what it takes to win the Tournament." He added but I just turned away.

"No thanks. I don't need a team to win." Kai rejected and I nodded in agreement but the old man chuckled.

"I thought you might say that, Kai which is why you're the Team Captain." Kai stopped short at the news.

"Captain, huh? What do you think Ashe?" he asked me. I just folded my arms and looked away.

"Honestly Kai, I couldn't give a rat's ass at this point." The other boys began to cheer at the news.

"This is awesome! With this team's level of skill, we're sure to go the distance." Ray said.

"Don't get too happy boys….training starts first thing in the morning." Kai stated and I smirked.

'These boys are going to be in for a serious wake up call.'

'_Indeed Mistress. They have no idea what's in store for them. But then again, neither do we. You know where the World Tournament is being held…are you ready to go back?'_

'I can't really say at this point. All I know is that we'll just have to take the journey one step at a time and figure out what to do when we cross that road. For now, all we can do is focus on the present.'

The Gathering-Delain

Shattered-Delain

I Walk Alone-Tarja Trunen


	3. Wandering Soul's Shadow

DISCLAIMER: I OWN NOTHING OF BEYBLADE! I ONLY REALLY OWN JUST ASHE HERSELF. HER BITBEAST ANIVIA, ISN'T MINE. SHE WAS FIRST AND FORMOST CREATED AS A CHARACTER TO PLAY IN THE GAME LEAGUE OF LEGENDS BUT SHE'S JUST SO AWESOME BUT AGAIN I DON'T CLAIM HER AS MY OWN! I'M TRYING TO NOT COPY THE DIALOGUE FROM BEYBLADE BUT I'M ALSO TRYING TO MAKE SURE THAT I DON'T MAKE KAI SOUND LIKE AN IDIOT.

It seems that Mr. Dickinson wasted no time in preparing the team for the World Tournament. The next day Kai and I reluctantly headed to the airport where we would be heading to China. Everything was going fine until the flight attendants started doing a head count.

"Great. Tyson's not here. That might actually be a good thing." I muttered aloud and Kai chuckled beside me. We were sitting in the back, far away from the others but then again we weren't flying first class so there were other people on the plane. "This plane better get moving or I'm getting off." Almost immediately, Kai's hand clamped around mine.

"Oh no. You're not leaving me to deal with this joke of a team alone." He whispered.

"Even if I wanted to leave Kai, there's nowhere for me to go." I whispered back. At that moment, Tyson took the opportunity to finally show up.

"Sorry I'm late guys." He apologized sheepishly.

'Surrreeeeee….'

After Tyson finally got settled, the plane took off for Hong Kong. During the flight, I had my I-POD in and blasting to numerous songs like Our Solemn Hour and Ghost Love Score. With my music going and 'The Historian' in my lap, the flight went by faster than I expected and soon Kai was nudging my arm, pulling out one of my earbuds.

"We're here."

We gathered out things and headed to the hotel where we got a suit for a room. There were 3 king sized beds and 1 couch and Tyson immediately started bouncing on the beds.

"Alright! These pillows'll make the perfect forts!" I just rolled my eyes and set my bag down on the bed nearest the balcony.

"Grow up, Tyson. We're not here to have fun." Kai placed his bag on the same bed.

"Ashe is right. Training needs to start now." He stated before turning to me. "You want the side closest to the wall?"

"You bet your blading ass I do."

"Hey wait a minute, why are you and Ashe sharing a bed, Kai? There's plenty of room for each person to have their own place to sleep." Tyson asked as he flopped down on one of the beds while Kenny opened up Dizzi.

"Because 1: We're supposed to be waiting for Ray and 2: No offense to you three but I'm not sharing a bed with someone I don't know."

"Good thing too since Tyson moves around a lot." Dizzi said from her place on the table.

"C'mon guys. Mr Dickinson is taking us out to a local fancy Chinese restaurant so get ready and lets go." Max said with his trademark goofy grin. So we all piled down into the BBA bus and took a 5 minute road trip. As we walked inside the restaurant, I noticed that the place was pretty much empty.

"Uh…why is this place practically empty? It's not late, dinner's only just begun." Mr Dickinson laughed behind us.

"Right you are my dear, but don't worry. This place will be crowded within the hour. That's why I had a private table reserved in the back for us." So we were led towards the back where a table with 6 chairs was seated around a table. We all took our seats starting with Mr Dickinson followed by Tyson, Max, Kenny, Kai, then me. Our waiter came out and poured tea for us all and then brought out a starter dish of sushi. I only opened my eyes and looked up once to see Ray as our waiter, though no one else but Kai and Mr D. seemed to notice. Tyson was stuffing his face while Kenny and Max talked beyblade designs. I just tuned everyone out and ate my dinner of steak, shrimp, and rice in, well,…semi peace. It was hard to try and enjoy any peace and quiet with Tyson. He could not stop talking even with a full mouth and I had the unpleasure of being hit with stray bits and pieces of rice every now and then. Finally, I had enough as Ray came around to serve us more tea.

"Tyson, if you don't shut the hell up when you eat then I'm going to personally make sure that the rest of your meals will be fed to you through a tube!" I hissed angrily and stood up. "Nice to see you again, Ray. Thanks for dinner Mr Dickinson but I'm going back to the room." And I left without awaiting a response, though I did hear Kai say something before I was completely out of earshot.

"Nice going Tyson."

I walked up the streets towards the hotel with my hands in my pockets and my music blasting in my ears, listening to the beating drums of Creek Mary's Blood. Within 10 minutes, I was back upstairs in the suit and took the opportunity of an empty hotel room to take a nice calming shower. I took my guns, Anivia and a change of clothes into the bathroom were towels were already waiting on the racks. After enjoying my nice shower, I changed into a spaghetti top and shorts, strapped my beybelt around my waist and stepped out to see the boys had come back, without Mr D., watching tv. Ray took notice of me first.

"Hey Ashe, everything alright?" All eyes were on me now.

"That depends. Is Tyson gonna order room service for more food or has he finally stopped eating?" The others except for Kai and Tyson snickered as Dizzi answered my question.

"Unfortunately Ashe, Tyson never stops eating." I sat on my bed and pulled out some of my blading tools.

"Lemme see Dranzer. He looked slightly off balance during your last match." I told Kai as he pulled Dranzer out of his pocket and handed him over to me. I took the blade apart and carefully inspected the pieces. The weight ring was cracked at one end which was the cause of the problem. An easy problem to fix but I had to go outside to do it and thankfully it wasn't raining. I grabbed my small tool box, filled up a cup with cold water, wrapped up the pieces of Dranzer and headed outside on the balcony where I was greeted by a cool night breeze. Sitting down, I spread my tools out taking a pair of pliers, a small hammer, and tiny blowtorch and goggles. I put the goggles on, took the weight ring in the pliers and started up the torch. As I applied heat, I used the hammer to shape the weight ring, filling in the cracks. The piece was coming along nicely and I was almost done when I felt a hand on my shoulder, startling me. My concentration broken, the heat from the flame came in contact with my left palm as I dropped the weight ring.

"AAAAAAAHHH!" I cried out in pain and clutched my hand as it felt like steak knives were continuously cutting into it. "GOD DAMN IT TYSON!" I screamed as I ran inside to the bathroom where all eyes followed me. Kai was the first at my side as I ran my hand under cold water.

"Ashe, what the hell happened? Kenny go get me the first aid kit." Kenny disappeared around the corner and returned seconds later with the red and white box.

"Here Kai."

He immediately went through it grabbing cream, bandages, gauze and wraps.

"Ashe what happened to you hand?" Ray asked as they all stared shocked at my wound.

"Tyson decided to fuckin' surprise me while I was mending your weight ring with A FUCKIN' BLOWTORCH!" I gripped Kai's arm with my free hand and squeezed to ease some of my pain. He didn't mind, he never did though it didn't happen very often if ever. He tended to my hand with such care that anyone would be surprised that it was coming from Kai. After my hand was bandaged, though still in a lot of pain, I prepared to head back outside. "No one is to bother me when I'm working on a blade…EVER!" I stormed back outside to finish Kai's blade. As I placed the finished piece in the water to cool it, I listened to the soothing sound of Kai chewing Tyson out for what happened.

"I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU WERE SO STUPID TO DO THAT! WHAT IF YOU CAUSED HER TO SCREW UP THE HAND SHE BLADES WITH?"

"I'm sorry Kai but shouldn't she be wearing gloves when handling a blowtorch?" Tyson tried to defend.

"THAT'S NOT THE POINT TYSON! YOU BETTER GET YOUR SHIT TOGETHER OR THIS JOKE OF A TEAM WILL LOSE THE ASIAN TOURNAMENT!" Kai finished as I reassembled Dranzer. Then I cleaned up my materials and went inside, placing my stuff beside the bed Kai and I were sharing.

"Here. Dranzer's as good as new." I said as I handed him back his blade. "How's your arm?" I motioned to Kai's upper arm were a slight bruise was starting to form where I had squeezed. He didn't even seem phased.

"Nothing to fuss over but it's getting late so we should get to bed. Training is to start tomorrow." Kai ordered causing a reaction groan from Tyson.

"Aw man, why tomorrow?" I unstrapped my belt and placed it on the nightstand on my side of the bed. I place my gun underneath the pillow and held Anivia in my hand.

"Training should have started today but do to circumstances beyond control, there was none. The Asian Tournament is in a week and we need to be prepared for anything."

"Ashe is right." Ray agreed. "We'll need to start training to improve our strengths and the best way to start is to get a good night's sleep.

So one by one, the boy's took turns using the shower. Kenny even let me work with his laptop so that I could put some of my blade designs into simulations.

"You're good with all these designs Ashe. There are some that I wouldn't have even thought of and I'm in a computer." Dizzi complimented. I had to admit, it was really nice to have another girl around besides Anivia, even if she was trapped in a laptop.

"Well they're not official designs but they're still work in progress. Plus being on this 'team' has some benefits. With all these new bitbeasts, I can work on designing blades to help them which gives me more to work with."

With everyone was done, I gave Kenny Dizzi back and everyone went to bed. With me and Kai sharing a bed, we made Tyson sleep on the couch as part of his punishment for my hand so Ray, Kenny and Max got their own big bed. My body got about 8 hours of sleep before waking me up at 4am for training as always. I went out on the balcony to begin with 200 pushups and 200 sit-ups with my gun in arms reach and Anivia next to Kai where I knew she'd be safe. It wasn't easy to do my pushups with my injured hand so I did 100 pushups and 300 sit-ups. When I went back inside, it was almost 5:30 and everyone was still asleep. So I grabbed my I-POD and prepared myself to go run 200 laps around the hotel. I was about to head out when a voice stopped me.

"Where do you think you're going? It's 5:30 in the morning?" I turned to see Kai sitting up in bed.

"Go back to sleep Kai. I'm going for my morning run. I'll be back after I do my trigger releases." And I headed out the door without another word. Kai knew about my morning run but he just wasn't fully aware of what my training consisted of. I went for my run which was quicker than expected so then I found a nice secluded spot in the hotel courtyard to work on my trigger releases for my launcher. It was made so that every time I cocked the gun, I had to pull back 20 lbs of pressure and released 5 when I pulled the trigger. I did 300 trigger releases for each hand, that way if something happened to my blading hand (my right hand), I could use my other hand just as good. By the time I returned up to the room, it was just around 8:30 and Kai was the only one up. He was reading one of the books I had brought with me called 'Marked'. "Enjoying your reading, Kai?" I whispered.

"Well it's not the worst thing I've ever read." He joked as he set the book down.

"Oh shut it. No one said you had to read what I brought. Think we should wake the others or let them sleep?" Kai didn't even hesitate to answer.

"Let them sleep. It's their own fault if they miss training."

I went to the suit fridge and grabbed a water and an apple for my breakfast.

"I'm heading out again after I eat. Try to see what's here…as far as competition goes. Care to join me?" I asked him.

"Sure. Anything to get away from this poor excuse of a team." Kai grabbed his clothes and headed into the bathroom, reemerging a few minutes later in ready clothes.

"Let's get the hell outta here." He stated after grabbing his launcher and Dranzer.

We headed out of the hotel and into town which, granted there wasn't much to see. We spent the whole day walking around the town and there wasn't a single match going on anywhere.

"Good god…there's nothing going on anywhere!" I shouted in frustration. Kai chuckled slightly to himself at my anger. Then he stopped short.

"Ashe, listen to that." I paused and closed my eyes, focusing on listening to the sound that Kai heard. At first I got nothing but then my ears picked up an all too familiar sound.

"Metal clashing at a fast rate, there's a beybattle going on." Kai nodded.

"Wanna check it out?"

"Hell yeah I do!" And just like that, we took off down an alley in the direction we heard the noises coming from. The further we went, the louder the noises got until we came upon a beybattle between some kids and Tyson, using a wok for a dish. The kid got cocky and Tyson thrashed him.

'Guess we've got nothing to worry about.' But I spoke too soon. As soon as Tyson turned his back, another blade shot out from the darkness and knocked Dragoon out, hurdling towards Ray. Thinking quickly, Kai launched Dranzer and knocked Dragoon back to Tyson's hand. I spotted someone sitting on the rooftop in the same direction the blade came from. I drew my launcher and held Anivia while the others took notice of our presence.

"Hey Ashe, Kai. There you are. We've been looking all over for you."

'Figures.' "Why waste time looking for us when you should be training? We would have come back, you doofus, even if we were thinking about leaving…numerous times, but later about that, do we have a problem here Monkey Boy?" I pointed my launcher up at the mysterious figure. He just laughed and jumped down. He had short, lime green hair and yellow eyes like Ray.

"Long time no see Ray." He jeered at our Chinese teammate.

"Kevin, what are you doing here?" The green haired boy said nothing, only pulled out his own blade, and launched in the wok. Tyson growled and launched Dragoon and the battle began.

"Who the hell is this guy?" I shouted in frustration as Monkey Boy and Tyson clashed hard, causing Dragoon to wobble a bit.

"I'm Kevin of the White Tigers and I'm about to end this battle. Go, Crazy Monkey!" A yellow ape appeared from Kevin's blade and charged, sending Dragoon from the wok dish. "Looks like your new team's nothing to be proud of Ray." Kevin sneered and I just wanted to seriously smack him.

"Hey, that was just one person you little skeever! You still got the rest of us to deal with." Tyson readied his blade again and he and Kevin launched, this time with Tyson taking the lead and becoming the victor. Just as Kevin went to launch again, the boy from earlier came back around the corner.

"What do you want, Bruce?" Kevin sneered.

"I've brought them Kevin." From behind Bruce, two people emerged. A big guy and a girl with a lot of pink…including her hair. Ray seemed stunned to see them.

"Gary…Miriah…I thought you didn't want to see me again." The girl, Miriah, had a look on her face that screamed 'sorrow' to the untrained eye.

'She must have really cared for Ray'

"I didn't come and expect to see you, traitor! We came here to keep Kevin from making a fool of himself. And so that we can practice for the Asian Tournament, the White Tigers have entered." Ray seemed taken aback by her cold response but I can't say I blame her. Ray was once a part of the White Tigers, or so I can assume, and left them to travel the world and ended up on the Bladebreakers. To someone who cared deeply enough about Ray would be shattered to find him just up and leave them for another team.

"Miriah, I'm sorry." But the pink haired nekojin just turned away as another boy emerged from the shadows.

"L-Lee." Ray identified. His attitude, walk, his whole demeanor said he was the Leader of the White Tigers.

"You've caused enough problems here Kevin. Now let's go." Lee demanded but was stopped by Kai.

"Hold on! You seem to be the leader, so let's have a battle. Just you and me."

'Leave it to Kai to challenge the leader.' But instead of answering or accepting, Lee turned and began walk away as Miriah stepped up.

"Why don't you battle me instead?" But Kai just scoffed so she launched her blade that started ricocheting off everything with such force and speed that we all had to shield our faces and look away. When the massive clanging ended, the pink blade returned to Miriah and the White Tigers left with a scowling Kevin. As soon as they were gone, the strangest thing happened as the wok suddenly cracked before shattering into pieces.

'Oh she's good.' I had to admit.

"Well that was fun and all but I think it's time to be getting back to the hotel. We've got a plane to catch tomorrow and while we're on it, I'm gonna put you all through hell with some training." I smirked as Tyson just groaned.

"Aww man."

As we walked back to the hotel, Ray seemed to drag behind the rest of us. Tyson kept poking and prodding to see what was going on.

"Tyson, leave Ray the hell alone! It's none of your business. If Ray want to tell you what's bothering him, then he'll tell you. Other than that, let it go!" I yelled in frustration but Ray shook his head.

"No, I think I should tell you guys what my past is to the White Tigers. See we all grew up in a small village together and were once the best of friends. Our team was called the White Tigers and we were the champions of China. But after a while, I wanted to travel and see the world so I left the team. I wasn't expecting to be part of a different team." The look on Ray's face was one of sadness and confusion.

Thankfully, Tyson didn't mention a word about the subject again so we got to the hotel without any problems. Except that as soon as we opened the door, he headed straight for the phone and ordered room service. Two carts of food arrived within 15 minutes and I managed to grab a roast beef sandwich and an apple before Tyson attacked the food. Everyone else got something as well before it disappeared. I took my meal outside on the balcony, watching the sunset. Peaceful and quiet. As the sun disappeared over the horizon, I couldn't help but wonder, 'Why am I really on this team? I know that I'm an excellent blader but for the Asian Tournament they really only need a team of 4 people. 3 as the main bladers and 1 for a substitute. All I would ever do is sit on the sidelines like some friggin' cheerleader. I'm not needed so why am I here?'

'_Perhaps, Mistress, you're not he__re for blading. Perhaps you're here for another reason.' _Anivia advised.

But even if she's right, then what am I here for?

Our Solumn Hour- Within Temptation

Ghost Love Score- Nightwish

Creek Mary's Blood- Nightwish


	4. Strength Is Born Of Struggle

DISCLAIMER: I OWN NOTHING OF BEYBLADE! I ONLY REALLY OWN JUST ASHE HERSELF. HER BITBEAST ANIVIA, ISN'T MINE. SHE WAS FIRST AND FORMOST CREATED AS A CHARACTER TO PLAY IN THE GAME LEAGUE OF LEGENDS BUT SHE'S JUST SO AWESOME BUT AGAIN I DON'T CLAIM HER AS MY OWN! I'M TRYING TO NOT COPY THE DIALOGUE FROM BEYBLADE BUT I'M ALSO TRYING TO MAKE SURE THAT I DON'T MAKE KAI SOUND LIKE AN IDIOT.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: THIS ONE GOES OUT TO beyblade fan 14 AND HotaruTheChainMaster for being the only ones who reviewed! THANKS YOU GUYS, THIS ONES FOR YOU!

The next day we got on the plane to take us to China Tower, the location of the Asian Tournament. On the plane I started the guys training.

"Alright boys, let's start with 100 pushups followed by 100 launches per hand."

Ray, Max and Kai all started while Tyson groaned in annoyance.

"How come we do all the work? Why aren't you training too? You're part of the team, aren't ya?" He complained as he slowly dropped down to start.

"Because Tyson, I'm always up before any of you doing much harder thing. Compared to my true training schedule, this is kids stuff. And anything you don't finish by the time we land, will be doubled tomorrow." Tyson immediately began going faster. Kai finished with the pushups first, then Ray, then Max and Tyson followed last. "Alright boys, now grab your launchers -no blades- and pull the ripcord 100 times with your blading hand and the pull the ripcord 100 times with the opposite hand."

Again Kai, Ray, and Max went straight to work and so did Tyson but with a scowl.

"Why are we doing both hands?"

"Because it's important to ready both hands in case circumstances prevent you from using your main hand. Case and point." I took off the glove to my left hand and showed them the bandages around my palm from the incident a few nights ago. "Now get launching."

Lucky for them, they boys finished their launched just before the plane landed. A charter bus took us to China Tower where thousands of people were gathering. The matches would be 3vs3. As we were waiting for Mr Dickinson to return from registering, we were approached by the White Tigers.

"Just remember this Ray, the White Tigers don't go easy on traitors." Lee snarled as I clapped a hand over Tyson's mouth before he could say anything, as Ray defended himself.

"Yeah well we don't go easy on anyone." Lee said nothing at the comeback, only walked away with his team. Then I released Tyson who started steaming.

"What the hell did you do that for Ashe?"

"That was not your fight Tyson. It was Ray's. You've got to learn when to open your mouth and when to shut it!" I raged before walking away furious. I blasted Our Solemn Hour in my ears as I headed to the stadium for the Bladebreakers first battle. I went through Nemo  and The Voice while waiting. When they finally did, Tyson still looked as pissed as ever but I couldn't really care. Kai took a seat on the bench beside me while Kenny pulled Dizzi out.

"Alrighty boys, your first opponents are the Tall Boys." She said as the stadium began filling up and in almost no time flat, the crowds began cheering for the matches to start. The referee showed up and announced the two teams.

"Alright, bladders, are you ready? Introducing the Tall Boys vs. the Bladebreakers! Will the competitors please choose who is going to be battling first." Almost immediately off the bat, Ray volunteered to go first.

"Are you sure, Ray?" Max asked but instead of a verbal answer, Ray just walked up to the dish where he was met by the Tall Boys representative.

"Alright, first up we have Ray from the Bladebreakers vs Andre of the Tall Boys! Bladers, ready! 3…2…1…LET IT RIP!

The two bladers launched and began to battle in the Chinese Mt. Range dish. The battle was as quick as Ray had anticipated, especially after Andre's yak had dodged his Tiger Claw attack.

"Ray had better pull it together. If he doesn't win this match, then he's off the team." Kai declared, leaving the others with shocked looks.

"Kai, you can't be serious?" Tyson claimed but Kai just shook his head.

"This battle should have been over long ago, but Ray's no focusing as he should be. If he can't win this match then he doesn't deserve to be on this team."

'If you wanna call this a team.'

However, Ray was able to pull off a win and the next battle was between Max and this kid Waylan. Things were going well…until Waylan's blade started to spin rapidly and heat up, changing the temperature of the entire stadium drastically.

"Oh god….someone better turn up the AC in here!" I groaned as I took off my trench coat and pulled my hair into a high ponytail. The heat was causing problems everywhere as Max slowly began to drop, causing Draciel to swagger.

"Hang in there Max!" Tyson called out as he tried to keep himself up. Max struggled but he was able to pull off a win, due to the fact that he waited out the extreme heat, which stopped the sudden heat wave.

"If I wanted to be in a place where the temperature is 110 degrees, then I'd go live in the friggin Sahara Desert, thank you very much!" I shouted as I sucked down a cup of water that some guy was passing out to all the bladers. The ref called for the last of the battles to begin and Tyson stepped up to the dish. His opponent was a guy named Tommy who attached his blade to his leg.

"Hey check it out. Afro guy's got a leg launcher." I hadn't seen one used in an official match before so this was quite interesting.

"Bladers, ready! 3…2…1…LET IT RIP!" Tommy something similar to a roundhouse kick which released his blade into the dish.

"Go get 'em Dragoon!" Tyson called but Tommy's blade was dodging with such movement, it looked like it was dancing.

"I thought this was a beybattle, not a dance off." I grumbled. "It takes 2 to tango but only 1 to win so hurry up and end this already, Tyson!" I called, wanting to get the hell outta here.

"Tyson's having trouble because Tommy's blade style is similar to that of tai-chi kickboxing." Ray said.

"What have you got, Dizzi?" I asked, slightly anxious about Tommy's blade.

"Well Ray's right. Tommy's blade is martial arts based, that's also spring loaded, giving it an advantage in dodging." Tyson finally seemed to get fed up with all the games.

"Dragoon, attack!" But all of Dragoon's attempts were futile as Tommy's blade just dodged every attack.

"What the hell is going on here?" I screamed. "I would've ended this long ago!" They say patience is a virtue, well, it's never been one of my strong points and it was clearly showing today.

'_Mistress, please. Tyson isn't the kind of blader you are…You must reme__mber that.'_ Anivia reminded me and she was right.

I needed to calm down or I'd probably do something stupid. So I put my headphones in and blasted Inis Mona while closing my eyes and picturing the Secret Spot. A gentle breeze flowing, brushing against the leaves of the weeping willow. They danced so lightly, creating a small rustling sound that sounded almost like waves on the beach. I sat there on the grass, listening intently to nature herself when I felt a hand on my shoulder. As I spun around to see who it was, I found myself sitting in the stadium seeing Ray.

"What is it?"

"Tyson won…They've gone to watch the White Tigers match." Without another word, Ray and I headed into another level of the stadium where we found the others watching the last round of the White Tigers. Finishing for the team was the pink haired Mariah.

"Galex, attack!" She called and a pink puma emerged from the blade, attacking her opponent's blade. At first, nothing seemed to happen but then the opponents blade was sliced in two!

"And the winner is Mariah! The White Tigers are moving on!" I looked down at the rest of the White Tiger team. They were all smiling widely but out of cockyness.

'Jesus, am I glad we don't have to face them soon or this team wouldn't stand a chance. If all goes well, then we'll face them in the finals.'

We all headed back to the hotel, this time everyone got their own beds. They went from left to right along the one wall. I quickly took the bed closest to the window near the wall. Kai took the one beside me then the order went Ray, Max, Tyson, and finally Kenny.

"I'm going to get take out, if you want something tell me now. And only one item, Tyson." His face slumped down but he complied.

"Alright, I want chicken chow-mein."

Max called for Beef Fried Rice.

"I'll take some wanton soup please." Kenny stated as he went to work with Dizzy.

"Some sweet n' sour chicken sounds good for me." Ray said. I grabbed my phone and headed for the door. I already knew what Kai wanted, Shrimp LoMein.

"Call me only if one of you is dying or else someone will be dead." I warned and headed out of the hotel to the Plum Blossom Gardens. A cute little take-out place, 3 blocks away from the hotel. I gave the woman my order and it was ready for me within 20 minutes. I paid her and left with food in hand, making my way back to the hotel within 10 minutes. As soon as I opened the door, Tyson was the first to come to his food, big surprise.

"Awesome, thanks Ashe!" He reached out his hand to grab a random container but I smacked his hand and he recoiled. "Ow!"

"Be patient, Tyson. That's not even your food. This is yours." I handed him his Chicken Chow-mein and he immediately dove into it with a smile on his face. Ray and Max accepted their food with thanks and smiles. I brought Kenny's soup to him as he was still working hard with Dizzi. "Here Kenny. Take a break would ya? Give Dizzi a chance to give her megabits a rest."

"Ashe is right, Chief. Let my hard-drive cool down while you eat, slowly if you please. We don't need you turning into another Tyson." Dizzi said and I had to chuckle at her joke. I took my sushi and Kai's shrimp and brought it over to where he was sitting on his bed, reading my book…again.

"Do you really have nothing better to do than to go through my things?" I semi-joked as I sat down beside him.

"It's better than talking with these pathetic idiots." He whispered and we ate our meal in silence. As soon as we all finished eating, I was the first one in the shower and was out within 15 minutes. Everyone else followed as well with Kai being the last one. Unfortunately for me, he forgot to bring a shirt into the bathroom so he came out in shorts with a towel wrapped around his neck

'Oh daaaaaaammmmmnnnnnn! He's so hot!'

Beads of water and steam created tiny rivers that glistened down his well built chest. An obvious 6 pack gleamed so beautifully that it was hard for me to look away.

'Holy mother of god…' I looked in a random direction, hoping that no one had seen my staring. 'I'm not supposed to think like that…Kai's only a friend, nothing more. SO STOP THINKING LIKE THAT!' I mentally screamed in my head. Kai put on a shirt and climbed into bed. Tyson had already passed out, Ray and Max were talking but ended their conversation as I shut the light off, leaving the moon as the only source of light. Kenny was in another room still working with Dizzi.

'I hope that boy doesn't cause her to burn out.'

'_Yes. I have enjoyed talking with Dizzi.'_ Anivia replied.

I climbed into bed and fell asleep with the moonlight streaming through the window. I was awoken by my body around 4:00am to begin training. I had just finished running laps when I heard someone screaming.

"My data!"

'Kenny.'

I pulled out my actual gun and ran in the direction of the screams. I saw someone unknown try and escape through the practice ring courtyard. I aimed for the dirt around his feet and shot, not hitting the person but I did cause them to fall. I ran closer but stopped about 15 feet away and pointed my gun.

"Ashe!" I didn't have to break focus to know who was coming up beside me. "Kevin, what are you doing here?" Ray demanded as I kept my gun on him.

"Apparently, dodging crazy bitches who go around shooting people!" The little green-haired shrimp shouted at me but I just cocked again, putting the safety off.

"You wanna say that again, string bean? Now answer the question, What are you doing here?" Kevin held up a floppy disk with a grin.

"I just decided to copy some data of your whole team." Ray growled beside me as I heard footsteps approaching from the others.

"Then we'll battle for the disk, just you and me." Ray challenged.

I lowered my gun and headed over to where the others were standing.

"Ashe, what's going on here?" Tyson asked as he rubbed the sleep from his eyes.

"Yeah we heard a gunshot, is everything ok?" Max added.

"Everythings…well…not exactly fine. Kevin stole a disk with a copy of the teams data and the gunshot was from me shooting the dirt near Kevin's feet to stop him from escaping. Ray and Kevin are going to have a beybattle for the disk."

Ray took the side of the dish farthest from us while Kevin stood opposite and Max reffed.

"Ready…3…2…1…LET IT RIP!"

Kevin and Ray launched their blades and then began to clash immediately.

"GO RAY!" Tyson cheered.

As the battle went on, it seemed like Ray would win but something happened. There was a point in the battle that Ray lost his concentration. That immediately became his downfall. There was a flash of green light and I saw Drigger clash with Kevin's ape. Drigger turned and looked at Ray and then took off into the sky. I don't know why but I felt this tug in my chest. When the dust cleared, Max looked into the dish.

"Kevin's blade had been knocked out while Ray's is still spinning. Ray wins!"

Though Ray didn't seem to want to share in the triumph. He had lost Drigger but he turned to Kevin before anything else could happen.

"Alright Kevin. Hand the disk over." Kevin reached into his pocket and pulled out the disk.

Before he even moved to give it to Ray without warning, I aimed and shot the disk shattering it. Kevin turned around looking like he was about to piss his pants.

"A-are you crazy? You could've killed me, you psycho bitch!" But I just pointed the gun at the ground near his feet causing him to stumble and fall.

"Get lost Kevin and if you ever come sneaking around here again, then I really will shoot you." I threatened coldly and he seemed to get my message as he scrambled to his feet and ran outta the courtyard.

"Later traitor!" he shouted to Ray as he climbed over the wall and disappeared. Ray looked extremely glum as Tyson, Max and Kenny went to congratulate Ray on his win. As for me, I turned and walked past Kai to continue training. When I came back after I finished Ray, Tyson, and Max were gone. Kenny was actually taking a nap while Kai lay flat on his back on the bed. He turned to me as I walked in.

"Ray went to try and find a way to get Drigger back and Tyson and Max went after him. If Ray quits, then you get to be substitute for Tyson or Max." The thought of me finally battling put a smile on my face.

"So what are you gonna do for training?" I asked as I laid down on my bed,

"I was training while you were gone training. Max had left a note saying he and Tyson were going after Ray."

"Well dandy doo for them. They better be back here for tomorrow though, or there is going to be some serious hell to pay." I pulled out my I-POD and put it on shuffle, taking a nap until the door burst open.

Surprised, I pulled my gun out from under the pillow and aimed it at the surprised faces of Max, Tyson and Ray.

"Woah, take it easy Ashe. We're not the enemy." Tyson said as he ducked in cover.

"But I don't know that. I don't have X-Ray vision to see through the door. For all I know, it could've been Kevin again." Ray, Tyson, Max and even Kai winced since they knew what I would do to Kevin.

"Yeah…but why do you have that anyway Ashe?" Max asked as they sat on their own beds.

"Because I'd rather have it and not use it than need one and not have it. (awesome quote from AVP) Plus I like to see the look on people's faces when they see it." I grinned evilly causing Tyson to duck in cover again. "Oh relax Tyson." I said as I laid back down and plugged my I-POD in to charge it while listening to it. I fell asleep listening to Toccata and Fugue.

Our Solemn Hour- Within Temptation

Nemo- Nightwish

The Voice- Celtic Women

Inis Mona- Eluveitie

Toccata and Fugue- Fantasia


	5. Thy Sorrow Is My Ecstasy

DISCLAIMER: I OWN NOTHING OF BEYBLADE! I ONLY REALLY OWN JUST ASHE HERSELF. HER BITBEAST ANIVIA, ISN'T MINE. SHE WAS FIRST AND FORMOST CREATED AS A CHARACTER TO PLAY IN THE GAME LEAGUE OF LEGENDS BUT SHE'S JUST SO AWESOME BUT AGAIN I DON'T CLAIM HER AS MY OWN! I'M TRYING TO NOT COPY THE DIALOGUE FROM BEYBLADE BUT I'M ALSO TRYING TO MAKE SURE THAT I DON'T MAKE KAI SOUND LIKE AN IDIOT.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: I'm feeling very generous today so I've posted 2 chapters today. PLEASE REVIEW THIS STORY SO I KNOW THAT MORE THAN 2 PEOPLE LIKE IT!

I awoke again and looked around. All the beds were empty, save for a single note on Kai's bed.

'Ashe, sorry but we had to leave so we could watch the White Tigers. Well actually, the others wanted to go but since I'm Team Captain, I have to go along too. No matter how much I don't want to…and I really don't want to. Anyway, Tyson decided it would be best to just let you sleep…mainly so that you don't shoot him if he attempts to wake you. Plus…and even though this is a crazy thing…I agree with Tyson. You needed some sleep, so we'll be back later

-Kai

PS: There's food in the fridge from this morning's room service. I made sure Tyson didn't eat it all on you.'

As if it had it's own ears, my stomach growled and I looked at the clock.

'3:49pm…Well I guess I'll be going to bed late tonight.' I thought as I opened the fridge to reveal a plate with some pancakes, waffles, scrambled eggs, a little cup of syrup off to the side, some butter packets and a tall glass of orange juice.

I put the food in the microwave to reheat as I drank some of the juice. The food was good and I ate it all before 4:30 while sitting outside, watching the clouds go by. Birds flew around the yard looking for food. I took some of my bread crumbs and scattered them around where I sat, placing some in my hand. I held my palm out and waited. It reminded me of the scene from Beauty and the Beast. Birds flew to collect the crumbs, some landing in my hands. I hummed Nemo softly as the birds continued to eat from my hand until nothing was left. I stroked their soft feathers before they took off into the sky. I went inside to see that it was a little after 5.

'They boys should be back soon. It's almost dinner time so Tyson should be getting pretty hungry right now.'

So deciding to be nice for almost shooting the guys last night, I ordered room service. It arrived within 30 minutes and about 5 minutes later, the boys came in.

"Ashe, you hungry?" Max asked as they entered but stopped when they saw 2 carts of food waiting.

"Holy hell!" Tyson immediately went to work, grabbing a plate full of food.

"Now Tyson, you must share with the others." I scolded as he began shoveling the food into his mouth.

He just rolled his eyes and said something that sounded like 'Yes Mom' but with all the food in his mouth it came out like 'Fyep Rrom'. I in turn rolled my eyes and pulled out my book to finish it. The rest of the evening was uneventful and we all went to bed without a fuss.

Problems occurred however when morning came. But the time I had finished Part 1 of my training, it was almost time to head over to the tournament. Everyone was up and ready…well all except for Tyson. He just continued to snore away, like it wasn't a big deal to be at a tournament. Max tried shaking him, Kenny poked Tyson multiple times and as for me, I shot my gun out the open window. Surprisingly that didn't wake him either. Then Ray got an idea.

"Hey Ashe, do we still have some peppers left from last night?"

"Yeah why?"

"Can I have a red hot one?"

So I brought him the unusual request but got a smirk on my face as he placed it into Tyson's mouth. Almost automatically, Tyson began to chew suddenly shooting up from the bed.

"HHHHHHHOOOOOOOOTTTTTTTTTTT!" He started running around trying to cool off his mouth. He got dressed and we were about to head out when…he fell asleep again.

"OH COME ON!" I groaned as Ray pulled Tyson onto his back.

"Let's get moving, I'll carry him."

When we got outside, Mr Dickinson was waiting for us with a BBA bus.

"Ah there you are….What happened to Tyson?"

"He's passed out cold. It's like nothing can wake him. Not shaking, not loud noises, not even the hot pepper in the mouth could wake this guy." I complained as I got on the bus first.

I took out my I-POD and tuned everything completely out as I began listening to Dead to the World. My eyes opened only when I felt the seat cushion shift as Kai took a seat beside me. I went through Ever Dream and Mother Earth before we arrived at the tower. Apparently Ray decided to walk with Tyson for some reason and they weren't there yet. We were waiting for Mr Dickinson to come back as he did but in a panicky mood.

"Bad news! There's been a terrible landslide!"

That wasn't good news. The only thing to do would be to stall for time. If they didn't get here soon, Max would start.

'Guys, you better get here soon.'

Unfortunately, they didn't arrive in time for the first round so Max had to begin without them. Our opponents were called the BladeHunters. Max was able to successfully pull off a win for the first round but there was still one problem.

"Kai, Tyson and Ray still aren't here. You'll have to go next to try and stall for more time." I said as Dj asked for the compedators for round 2. As Kai stepped forward, I turned to leave when Max called after me.

"Ashe, where are you going?"

"To get some answers." I called back as I stalked out of the arena to look for Kevin. Something in my gut told me that he had something to do with Tyson and Ray not being here. I found him talking with the other White Tigers so I pulled out my gun and grasped him by the collar of his shirt, lifting him up against the wall. His teammates were shocked to see me but, I ignored them and focused all my attention and anger at the possibly soon to be missing link in front of me(Tyson called him that at one point earlier in the show so I had to add it cause it was just too funny) "Alright, why are Tyson and Ray not here?" I hissed as the others continued to look shocked.

"Not here? Kevin, what is she talking about?" Mariah asked.

"I-I have no idea! She's a crazy, psychotic bitch!" Kevin complained as he squirmed in my grasp, trying to get free. But I just pointed the gun at his head and gripped him tighter.

"Don't give me any of your bullshit, Kevin. How did you create the landslide?"

"Alright, alright! I used my beyblade to collapse some of the weak rocks! Please! Don't kill me, please!" He started crying as he confessed. His teammates were appauled at the news and began scolding him as I released my grip.

"Kevin! How could you? That is not the way of the White Tigers!" Lee yelled as Mariah smacked him upside the head.

"Well I got what I came for so if you'll all excuse me, I'm going to watch Kai demolish his opponent." And with a flap of my coat, I left them to sort out their squabbling. I returned to that arena to see Kai walk off the dish with a smirk, signifying his win…Big surprise…He sat down on the bench and I sat beside him while Kenny was typing furiously away on Dizzi with Max watching him. 'Those two better get here soon or I'm going to pummel them into the ground until their nothing but dust!' I growled until DJ called for the compedators for the final round.

"WAIT!" I recognized that annoying voice right away.

"Tyson! Ray!" Max called as he ran over to greet them. I turned towards the entrance to see Tyson carrying Ray piggyback style with Max by his side. Ray got down and started being supported by the two while staying off his left ankle. Mr Dickinson came down as they sat Ray on the bench.

"Oh my goodness, Ray what happened?" The kindly old man asked as Ray propped his leg up on the bench.

"There was a landslide along the cliff road so Tyson and I had to climb over the rocks and continue on foot but I sprained my ankle."

As Tyson began prepping for the final round, I tended to Ray's ankle. I wrapped it in an ace bandage and placed some ice on it.

"Thanks Ashe. That feels much better." Ray said as Tyson began to stomp his opponent.

"Well I might as well do something that'll contribute to the team." I muttered as the match ended.

"That's it! The BladeBreakers are moving onto the finals where they'll face the well known White Tigers! Who will win the Asian Tournament? Tune in tomorrow and find out! Until then beyblade fans, remember to LET IT RIP!" And the crowd cheered for the two teams before dispersing.

I was the first one out of the stadium and onto the bus. I tuned everyone and everything out while listening to 'Hand of Sorrow', 'Poison', 'Total Eclipse of the Heart', and 'All About Us'. We had to take a different route back to the hotel because of Kevin's fuckin stunt with the landslide, so I got to listen to more of my I-Pod while reading more of the 'The Historian'. By the time we got to the hotel, I had gone through 'It's Raining Men', 'Rasputin' and 'Tik-Toc'. Max and Kai helped Ray into the room where Tyson immediately ordered food for us all which arrived within 20 minutes. I checked Ray's ankle after we ate. He and Tyson took long showers since they were out in the wilderness all day. By the time everyone started to prepare for bed, Ray could walk on his own with a slight limp.

"Hey thanks again for taking care of my ankle today, Ashe." Ray mentioned again before the lights went out.

"Don't worry about it Ray. Just don't put too much pressure on it and you'll be fine." I mentioned back as the room went dark and I fell into sleep listening to Tyson's snores.

Nemo – Nighwish

Dead To The World – Nightwish

Ever Dream – Nightwish

Mother Earth – Within Temptation

Hand of Sorrow – Within Temptation

Poison – Tarja Turunen's version

Total Eclipse of the Heart – Bonnie Tyler

All About Us – TATU

It's Raining Men – The Weather Girls

Rasputin – Bonnie M

Tik-Toc – Ke$ha


	6. The Glory Of Action

DISCLAIMER: I OWN NOTHING OF BEYBLADE! I ONLY REALLY OWN JUST ASHE HERSELF. HER BITBEAST ANIVIA, ISN'T MINE. SHE WAS FIRST AND FORMOST CREATED AS A CHARACTER TO PLAY IN THE GAME LEAGUE OF LEGENDS BUT SHE'S JUST SO AWESOME BUT AGAIN I DON'T CLAIM HER AS MY OWN! I'M TRYING TO NOT COPY THE DIALOGUE FROM BEYBLADE BUT I'M ALSO TRYING TO MAKE SURE THAT I DON'T MAKE KAI SOUND LIKE AN IDIOT. 

I awoke at the usual time, 4am, to train though the boys were still asleep. Somehow, Tyson ended up on Kenny's bed and was sprawled out across the Chief. Yet, the two were just snoring away. Max lay facing them looking sweet and innocent as he always did. Ray lay on his back with one arm across his stomach and the other at his side. Kai lay on his side facing my bed. He looked so calm and peaceful, I had to bite my knuckles until they bled to restrain myself from brushing a stray hair away from his face…His handsome face…

'NO DAMN IT! STOP THINKING LIKE THAT! IT'S NOT SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT AT A TIME LIKE THIS! FOCUS ON THE TOURNAMENT! FOCUS ON BEATING ALL THOSE WHO DON'T UNDERSTAND!'

My fists clenched in anger at those thoughts. I exited the room silently to begin my training while listening to 'All About Us' and 'Ice Queen'. By the time I finished the first part, it was almost 8:00am so I went into the kitchen to fix myself a small breakfast.

'I just hope Tyson didn't eat all the food.' I thought as I opened the fridge to see some milk so I made a small bowl of oatmeal. I ate that while enjoying the silence that the early morning brought…that is until the phone rang. Since it was almost time for the boys to get up, I let it go. But someone answered it on the fourth ring.

"Hello?" It was Ray. "Ok…yeah. I'll tell them."

The bed creaked and footsteps approached the kitchen as a sleepy Ray walked in.

"Morning, Ashe-*yawn*-What are you doin' up this early?"

"Training. I was planning on getting the rest of you guys up after I finished eating. We have to be at the tournament at 11."

"Actually, Mr Dickinson just called to say that we have to be there at 10:30."

I looked at the hanging clock in the kitchen, 8:45.

"Well then I guess sleepy time's over. Go get in the shower and I'll wake the others up."

Ray gave me a small smile and a salute.

"Aye aye Captain Ashe." He chuckled as he disappeared into the bathroom. I went into the bedroom and started with Kai.

"C'mon Kai, you gotta wake up. Dickinson just called and said we have to be at the tournament earlier than we first thought." I said, shaking him firmly but also gently. I swear my chest pained a tiny bit when he opened his gorgeous eyes, though I don't know why.

"Ashe,*groan* what time is it?"

"Almost nine and we have to be at the stadium by 10:30."

So Kai got up and prepared to get in the shower once Ray was done. In order to get Tyson up, I filled up a bucket with cold water and ice. Ray gave me a funny look as he came out with a towel around his neck.

"What's the bucket for, Ashe?"

"I'm not taking any chances today with Tyson. Kevin was the one who started the landslide yesterday and I found that out after I scared him. So today, Tyson's going to get there on time, even if I have to tie him to the bus. Plus his screams and yells should wake Max though Kenny will get wet too. I have no clue how he ended up there." But I stopped for a moment.

'Hey I wanna remember this.'

So I took Dizzi out and powered her up.

"Morning Ashe, what can I help you with?" I smirked evily.

"Actually Dizzi, I need you to record a video of me dumping cold water and ice cubes onto Tyson and Kenny to wake them up. I want to remember this moment."

The trapped bitbeast laughed.

"Yeah that does sound like fun. OK just set me down on the desk and we'll be all set to go." I did so and with that, I poured the cold contents onto the snoring bladers. Immediately, the two shot up and started screaming.

"COLD!"

"HOLY SHIT THAT'S FUCKIN FREEZING! OH GOD, IT'S DOWN MY SHIRT! GET IT OUT!"

Tyson started jumping up and down like he was dancing weirdly. Max had shot up out of bed as soon as the two screamed but then began to enjoy the show. I even saw Kai crack a small smile.

"Oh god! What the hell, Ashe? Can't you just shake us away like normal people?" Tyson yelled at me but I just shook my head.

"I'm not taking any chances with you sleeping in. We have to be at the tournament in ½ an hour so hurry up and get ready." Dizzi and the others started laughing as Kenny pulled out his clothes while Tyson continued to growl at me.

"Why the fuck should I listen to you? You don't do anything for this team except sit on the side lines like a fuckin' nobody! Go back to whatever fuckin' hole you crawled out of and leave us all the hell alone!"

"Tyson!" Kai and Ray yelled while I just stood there unphased.

"Yeah, whatever. Just hurry up and get downstairs." I called grabbing my I-POD and headed downstairs.

I hate to admit it but what Tyson said was true.

'I really don't belong here. I just treat injuries or yell at them when they battled. Maybe I should just go back home.'

'_But Mistress, you know you can't go back home. What about Master Kai?'_ Anivia questioned me with concern.

'He'd be better off without me. He can go so far without me dragging him down and he knows it. Once this tournament is over and done with, I'm leaving.' I declared and turned on 'She Is My Sin' to try and think about something else but I couldn't. I may have acted like it didn't affect me at all but it really did and it hurt…a lot. I felt like crying but I haven't done that in 8 years. The bus arrived early so I climbed on and sat in the very back. 'She Is My Sin' ended and 'Tourniquet' began. I turned up the volume to full max and let myself drown within the lyrics, completely unaware that someone else got on the bus. As the song came towards the end, my ear buds were suddenly ripped out of my ears.

"Hey what the-" It was Kai and he had a saddened look on his face.

"If you listen to anything Tyson says, then you've got have less common sense than him." He said as he handed over my headphones.

"What are you talking about, Kai?"

"How can you even think of actually leaving me? The idea is so stupid that I can't believe you actually even considered it! You are not slowing me down, if anything you always end up forcing me to step up and train more and more. You create a passion about your training and that not only puts your skills ahead of this team, but it could put you ahead of me. If anything, I'm the one who's bringing you down." I clenched my hands as Kai told me this.

"Are you fucking serious? You're bringing me down! How the fuck can you say that? Everybody knows who you are! They know that you're one of the world's best bladers and they have no idea who I am! And that's just the way I like it!" I screamed in frustration. "Besides, how the hell did you even know that I was considering leaving?"

"Dranzer told me but that doesn't matter. You can't leave me here with this team. I know for a damn fact that I will end up either killing them myself or committing suicide just to get away from them all. Ray I can deal with, Kenny and Dizzi's blading info comes in handy, Max…well his sugar induced enthusiasm can only be taken just so far but Tyson is defiantly someone the world could probably do without." I chuckled a bit at his statement. "Tyson's just a puissant little child who's just jealous and upset with the fact that you're the only girl on an all boy's team. Dizzi doesn't really count since she's Kenny's bitbeast." Kai placed a comforting hand on my shoulder. "Besides I always got a kick out of you scaring everyone."

We said no more as the others started getting on the bus. I put my headphones back in and turned on 'Bad Romance' and 'No Compliance'. The road had been cleared of the rocks from the landslide so the trip was nice and short. We headed right into the beystadium as soon as the bus stopped. The White Tigers stood on the opposite side, ready for a battle.

"Alright blading fans! It's the moment you've all been waiting for! The finals of the Asian Tournament! So lets get this show on the road. Teams, choose your first blader!" The crowd cheered as Max stepped up opposite the big guy, Gary. "3…2…1…LET IT RIP!"

As the bladers launched, Max started to try and attack quickly. And it worked. Gary looked like he was either too tired or too hungry to battle and Max took the victory of the first round.

"Alright Max!" Tyson cheered as the blond turned and gave him a thumbs up.

"No sweat guys. I got this one in the bag."

Kai just shook his head.

"He's getting too over confident."

I said nothing as the two bladers launched again. Just like before, Max started attacking head on but something changed. Gary seemed to get all angry and pissed off. His blade reacted to his emotions and knocked Draciel out of the ring, stunning Max and the others. Tyson ran up to Max who slumped down in disappointment.

"What happened out there, buddy?" Tyson asked but Max just shook his head.

"I don't know…It all happened way too fast."

"You got too cocky and your opponent took advantage of it." I explained as Kenny and Kai nodded their heads.

"You have to focus. Gary may look like a big teddy bear but he's got the ferocity of a man eating shark." Kenny explained as he began looking over the data.

Max went in and stood for the third round which would determine the winner of the first battle. As the blades were launched, Gary was the first one to start attacking. Max tried his best to dodge the attacks but in the end, Gary triumphed.

"AND THE WHITE TIGERS WIN THE FIRST ROUND!" The crowd cheered as a disappointed Max sat down on the bench.

Tyson slung his arm around his friend.

"Aw, cheer up pal, we're still going to win."

The ref called for the next bladers and Ray stepped up.

"BATTLING FOR THE WHITE TIGERS IS THE EVER DEADLY MARIAH! AND REPRESENTING THE BLADEBREAKERS IS THE SWIFT RAY!"

I groaned as I heard girls shouting to Ray from behind us.

"I love you, Ray!"

"You're the best, Ray!"

"You can do it!"

I just put my head in my hands as the ref started the countdown. I had every confidence in Ray's skills but I wasn't so sure about him battling his old team. Kai seemed to think the exact same thing.

"Ray shouldn't be going now." Kai stated aloud but Mr Dickinson just chuckled.

"Now, now Kai. You just have to let young love run it's course."

'Young love? Oh boy…That reminds me Anivia. HOW COULD YOU GO AND TELL DRANZER WHAT WE HAD TALKED ABOUT EARLIER?' I scolded.

'_Forgive me, Mistress but I had to tell Dranzer. It was the only way Master Kai could've ever talked some sense into you. You may not realize it but the three of us care about you greatly. Please don't hold things in. Express them so that together we can overcome them and find a solution. I will always be there for you, Mistress. Just as I always have been and I always will be.'_

'Thank you Anivia, but you don't have to worry so much about me all the time.' I said.

Anivia and I were so engrossed in talking that we completely missed the first two rounds of the battle. The scores stood at 1-1.

'If Ray loses this last round, then the White Tigers win the Asian Tournament.'

As Ray and Mariah began battling, Drigger and Galex emerged and began intertwining with one another. There was a big flash of light and for a few minutes, I couldn't see anything but then everything was back to normal. Drigger and Galex were still spinning and they prepared for their final attack.

"Tiger Claw!"

"Cat Scratch!"

The two blades collided with full force but only one remained spinning in the end.

"Amazing! And the winner of Round 2 is…Ray!"

The crowd, mainly girls, began screaming and calling for Ray. I just rolled my eyes and plugged my ears. Once the screaming died down a bit, I unplugged my ears for the ref to call for the final bladers. Lee and Tyson stepped forward.

"Ok I can't deal with all this shouting. Let me know what happens when it's all over." I said aloud and put my headphones in with 'Next Contestant', 'Dead to the World' and 'Bring Me To Life'. I was in the middle of listening to 'Pyromania', when I felt a tap on my shoulder. I paused my music to see it was Kai.

"It's over. We won."

The crowd was cheering for the team as Mr Dickinson brought us all out to the center of the stadium and congragulated us.

"I'm so proud of you all. You did such splendid work. Now I'm going to send you back home to rest and recuperate but we'll be leaving for America in 2 days for the tournament being held there."

I face-palmed while the others began to immediately plan about what they were going to do there.

"Uh, guys…Let's wait and make plans when we get there, huh?"

I said as we headed back to the bus. However the boys paid no attention to my words so they just kept gabbin on and on. So I just ignored them and sat beside Kai on the bus listening to 'Night On Bald Mountain', all the while thinking about what the American tournament would hold in store for us all.

All About Us – TaTu

Ice Queen – Within Temptation

She Is My Sin – Nightwish

Tourniquet – Evanescence

Bad Romance – Lady Gaga

No Compliance – Delain

Next Contestant – Nickelback

Dead To The World – Nightwish

Bring Me To Life – Evanescence

Pyromania – Cascada

Night On Bald Mountain – Fantasia


	7. Decision's Made In Haste

DISCLAIMER: I OWN NOTHING OF BEYBLADE! I ONLY REALLY OWN JUST ASHE HERSELF. HER BITBEAST ANIVIA, ISN'T MINE. SHE WAS FIRST AND FORMOST CREATED AS A CHARACTER TO PLAY IN THE GAME LEAGUE OF LEGENDS BUT SHE'S JUST SO AWESOME BUT AGAIN I DON'T CLAIM HER AS MY OWN! I'M TRYING TO NOT COPY THE DIALOGUE FROM BEYBLADE BUT I'M ALSO TRYING TO MAKE SURE THAT I DON'T MAKE KAI SOUND LIKE AN IDIOT.

True to his word, the next day we were on a plane back to Japan. Ray stayed in China to catch up with the White Tigers so the rest of us went home. I don't know where Kai went but we agreed to meet at the Secret Spot on the morning of the second day. I didn't waste any time fooling around. As soon as I got back to the abandoned warehouse that used to serve as the Blade Sharks headquarters, I immediately began my training. Countless hours of launches, trigger releases, endurance obstacles everything I could think of. I took tiny breaks to eat and drink so as not to collapse from exhaustion. I slept very little and prepared to meet Kai at our spot. He sat on the hill under the willow tree, gazing up into the clouds like he was just daydreaming.

"Kai." I called, though he didn't sit up. He just turned his head to look at me.

"Ready?"

"For now, yes. But ask me again in the future and I might give you a different answer."

He chuckled slightly but said nothing as I sat beside him. We didn't say anything for a while until I looked at my watch.

"Almost time to head to the bus…Fantastic." I groaned as I hung my head low.

A few minutes later, Kai stood and I followed.

"I talked it over with Mr Dickinson. We agrees that you are going to be the team substitute." I almost lost my footing and tumbled down the hill in shock at the news.

"So there's a good chance that you'll be battling in this tournament, so you'd better prepare yourself."

Kai and I arrived at the bus after Max and Ray did. Kenny and Tyson were the last to show but no surprise there. We arrived at the airport and thankfully our flight left on time. Once the light that indicated it was out to unfasten our seat belts went off, I reclined my seat as far back as it could go and pulled out my I-POD, listening to 'Brictom', 'Dark Wings', 'Slania's Song', 'Astral Romance', 'Shot In The Dark', and 'Shut Up And Drive' before Kai tapped my shoulder and held a cup of water to me. I nodded my thanks and drank it as he started on a small bag of pretzels. I turned my music back on and heard 'Simple and Clean', 'Paralyzer', 'Forsaken', 'Miracle', 'Toxic', 'The Endless Knot', and the middle of 'Total Eclipse Of My Heart' before my battery went dead.

"I can't believe I forgot to charge the fucking things before we left." I hissed.

I had the charger with me but the plane didn't have any of the sockets that I could use. I could use Dizzi to charge it but that would decrease her battery as well.

"Just damn great." I muttered aloud causing Tyson to look at me from across the aisle.

"What's up, Ashe?"

"I've been training so much the past two days that I forgot to recharge my I-POD so now the battery's dead and I am without music until we reach the hotel." I groaned as I slunk back into my seat.

"Wow…" he whispered and thankfully he didn't talk for a while so I enjoyed the silence as best I could.

Everything was nice until Tyson began groaning a few hours later.

"What the hell are you groaning about now, Tyson?" I asked not even bothering to look at him.

"I think it's what he ate. I warned him about the airplane's twenty year old snack food." Kenny explained as Max giggled a bit.

"Yeah…but I saw Kai eat them so why isn't he complaining?"

Kai didn't say anything in response. He just sat there with his eyes shut and his arms crossed.

"Not everyone feels the need to voice their complaints about every little thing you bone head, so shut up and keep quiet till we land." I growled as I turned so my back was to everyone.

Thankfully we landed in America within an hour, a bus waiting outside for us.

"I can't wait to see that sights here. It's gonna be awesome!" Tyson cheered as we gathered our bags from the carousel.

"We're not here to sight see, Tyson. We need to train." Kai stated with much command in his voice but the bonehead just laughed.

"Aw don't be such a party pooper, Kai. Last one on is a rotten egg!" Tyson called as he and Max took off towards the bus while Mr Dickinson chuckled behind us.

Kai and I didn't participate in the foolish race, though Tyson and Max stopped when they saw Tay step off the bus.

"Hey Ray, whatcha doin' here?" Tyson asked as he greeted his friend.

"I knew I'd get here before you guys so I set up a little surprise. A tour at the top BBA Research facility in the country." Tyson and Max immediately showed their enthusiasm as we climbed aboard.

"Can't the tour wait? I need to charge my I-POD." I groaned as I sat down…again.

"Why do you feel like you need to have that thing twenty-four seven?" Tyson asked as he spun around in his seat.

"Because it keeps me from listening to you complain all the friggin time and it helps me when I train." I answered harshly since I was in a shitty mood.

Tyson shrank a bit in his seat at the harshness of my voice and everyone decided to leave me alone. The research facility was a fifteen minute drive from the airport so it didn't take long to get there. Kenny was bouncing up and down in his seat with Dizzi in his lap.

"Kenny, bud, calm down will ya?" Tyson said as he continued looking at the jumping boy.

"I can't Tyson! I've almost completely hacked the facility's site so I can get a closer look at the research they've complied!" Ray just laughed at the kid's enthusiasm as the bus pulled up in front of the facility.

Kenny held Dizzi and was the first one off the bus with the rest of us following behind him. Mr Dickinson chuckled and a scientist came out and introduced himself.

"Welcome, Bladebreakers. I'm Brian. Come, lets begin the tour."

The guy took us all over the place, showing us how the facility was designing different kinds of blades with boosted speed, strength and stamina. It wasn't much news to me. I'd hacked their sight long ago and saw all this stuff. Kenny apparently liked all this so much, he put on a bandana, an apron, and grabbed a broom, sweeping around.

"You're right! This place is great to work at!" He grabbed Brian's legs in happiness. "Please! Please let me work here!" he pleaded and I could only shake my head at the pitiful boy in front of us.

Brian could only chuckle nervously as Max and Ray struggled to pry the Chief's arms off.

"I'm afraid you'd have to speak with Dr Judy. She's the president of our facility."

Just then our tour was interrupted by some voices.

"Emily, I'm going to need you to – Brian?

Brian was approached by a tall blonde woman with a young girl about our age with orange hair and glasses.

"Ah, Dr Judy. I'd like to introduce the Bladebrakers. Team, this is our president Dr Judy."

"Mom?" Max spoke up and all of our heads snapped in his direction.

'Mom?'

"Maxey?" Max ran up and hugged the good Dr who embraced her son.

I had seen enough…I couldn't look anymore and turned away.

'_Do not dispare, Mistress. Max was just as surprised as the rest of them.'_ Anivia soothed me but her words, no matter how hard she tried, couldn't sway me to face them.

'Please just tell me when we're moving on'. I thought as I backed away a bit to lean against the wall, choosing a song to play in my head to distract me. I settled on 'Concrete Angel'. As the song played, I clutched Anivia in my hand. Through my gloves, I could still feel her ice cool touch that tried to console me. She stopped me from choosing another song.

'_Mistress, they're moving on. Perhaps we should follow as well so as not to get lost.'_

My wordless response consisted of following the team as Judy led us to a place that was like a giant training workroom. A bunch of kids were on a level below us.

"Will everyone please clear the training area, except Tony and Andy." Judy spoke through the intercom. All but two bladers left. "Emily, go join them please? Bladebreakers, will you choose three of your teammates to go down with her."

Tyson, Max and Ray immediately volunteered leaving me on the upper level with Kai, Judy and Mr Dickinson. There were three individual battles and each Bladebreakers got their butts beat.

"Looks like I'm going to need to push them harder at training." I said aloud with a smirk on my face.

Kai glanced at me before the others returned to the top, disappointment the master of their expressions.

"Thanks for being our lab rats, guys." Emily sneered as she appeared beside Judy in her lab coat again. "Now we just need to test the other two." She said while glancing at me and Kai.

I just glared harshly at her.

"I am no one's test subject. You want data, then battle me for real in the tournament. Other than that, you're a complete waste of my time so go back to you chemistry set and leave me the hell alone." I hissed and for a few seconds, I saw fear in the bitch's eyes. Then it disappeared as she smirked.

"Fine, we'll see you in the tournament and then we'll wipe the floor with you just like we did with those three." I narrowed my eyes and growled harshly and went to advance forward, but Kai placed a hand on my shoulder.

"Relax Ashe. You'll get your chance to show her what you can do when the time comes." He said as he too glared at Emily.

Angered still, I turned and left the room, not wanting to stay in the same room as the snotty bitch. The rest of the gang found me outside with the bus.

"Hey Ashe, the facility invited us to stay for dinner. Wanna come?" Ray asked as he saw me.

"That depends. Will that bitch Emily be there?"

Ray shook his head.

"Naw, it's just us."

"Fine. Whatever." I shrugged as I followed them to the cafeteria.

"Tyson, I'm only going to say this once, DO NOT EAT THIS PLACE DRY. Got it?" I said while pulling my coat aside to show the gleam of my gun which caused Tyson to shrink back with fear.

"Yes, ma'am." He squeaked before dashing away.

"I never get tired of you doing that." Kai spoke beside me as he smirked a bit.

"Yeah, I know."

I grabbed a roast beef sandwhich, some French onion soup and an apple. I sat between Kai and Kenny and ate in peace. Thankfully Tyson was too busy stuffing his face to talk while Kai and Ray didn't say anything. Chief was doing some research while Max hardly touched his food.

"Hey Maxey, are you ok?" Tyson asked when he finally got a breath.

The blonde haired boy didn't respond at first but eventually nodded.

"Yeah but I'm gonna go see my mom. I'll meet you guys back at the hotel." He said as he left the table.

"Poor guy." Ray said as we watched him go.

"You have to be prepared for anything, anywhere, anytime." Kai said while Kenny sighed beside me.

"Ya know Kai, sometimes you can be a real downer."

"I try." Kai shot back and I smirked.

"Hey you guys this is the perfect time to check out the rest of the facility…C'mon." Tyson pipped up and Kenny and Ray seemed to agree.

"Yeah. Let's see what else we can learn about his place." Ray said and the three took off.

"Son of a bitch…Those three are gonna get us kicked out of somewhere one of these days, I know it." I groaned as I finished my apple.

"Well lets just wait and see what happens.

Two hours later, Kai and I finally seemed to come to our senses and went to explore the facility while looking for the others.

"I can't believe it took us two hours to realize that those idiots were right." I muttered as we began dodging security cameras and alarm systems.

"Well Tyson's usually the one who doesn't have the bright ideas." Kai noted.

"True."

We dodged the last of the guards when we heard voices.

"Mom, wait!"

'Max'. We ran toward their direction only to hear the bleating of alarms. We rounded the corner just in time to see two walls of plexi glass coming down and Max was right underneath one! Acting quickly, Kai pushed Max out of harms way with me behind them.

"Hey Ashe, Kai. Where'd you guys come from?"

"Apparently, from saving Max's butt." I commented as Kai and Max hauled themselves to their feet and we got a good look at our surroundings.

Boxed in by two walls of plexi glass and two metal walls. We pounded on the glass but that did absolutely nothing so Tyson pulled out his blade and launched Dragoon at the glass but it did was bounce off the glass without a scratch.

"Let me try something. Everyone cover your ears."

They all gave me a questionable look but as soon as they saw me take out my gun, they immediately complied as I began firing off rounds at about the same spot. The bullets put some dents and cracks in the glass that started to turn into spidercracks but still the wall wouldn't break.

"Damn." I growled as I holstered my gun since I was out of ammo.

"Ashe, don't you have any spare clips?" Tyson asked but I just shook my head.

"No. It's in my bag on the bus but next time I'm defiantly packing extra ammo next time." I grumbled as a door in the wall behind us opened and out stepped two boys.

One wearing football gear and the other wearing a basketball jersey and shorts. The football player snapped his fingers, shutting off the alarm and causing the glass walls to rise.

"Just who the hell are you two?" Tyson asked.

"I'm Steve." The football player introduced and the basketball's called himself Eddie.

Apparently they were a part the American All Starz team. Steve then proceeded to insult us which Ray didn't take too kindly to so the two began a beybattle. Steve placed the football he was carrying on the floor and gave it a swift kick, releasing a blade from the inside. According to the two and Dizzi's analysis, Steve's bitbeast, Trihorn the Bull, was an artificially created bitbeast.

"Geeze, don't these guys have anything better to do than to create bitbeasts?" I screamed in frustration.

The battle didn't take long as Trihorn smashed into Drigger harshly and ended the battle.

"Well now that that's done and over with, CAN WE PLEASE GET THE HELL OUTTA HERE?" I yelled angerly while the boys looked at me scared…well all except for Kai who seemed to get a kick out of me being pissed off.

We all got back on the bus and headed to the hotel where I finally got a chance my I-POD.

'NOTE TO SELF: Find a way to make a solar charger for this thing.'

Luckily the bed that I claimed had an outlet beside it so I could listen to music as I slept. I fell asleep listening to 'Angel of Darkness'.

Brictom – Eluveitie

Dark Wings – Within Temptation

Slania's Song – Eluveitie

Astral Romance – Nightwish

Shot In The Dark – Within Temptation

Shut Up And Drive – Rihanna

Simple and Clean – Utada Hikaru

Paralyzer – Finger Eleven

Forsaken – Suidakra

Miracle – Cascada

Toxic – Britney Spears

The Endless Knot – Suidakra

Total Eclipse of the Heart – Bonnie Tyler

Concrete Angel – Martina McBride

Angel of Darkness – Axel C.


	8. Sky Sanctuary

DISCLAIMER: I OWN NOTHING OF BEYBLADE! I ONLY REALLY OWN JUST ASHE HERSELF. HER BITBEAST ANIVIA, ISN'T MINE. SHE WAS FIRST AND FORMOST CREATED AS A CHARACTER TO PLAY IN THE GAME LEAGUE OF LEGENDS BUT SHE'S JUST SO AWESOME BUT AGAIN I DON'T CLAIM HER AS MY OWN! I'M TRYING TO NOT COPY THE DIALOGUE FROM BEYBLADE BUT I'M ALSO TRYING TO MAKE SURE THAT I DON'T MAKE KAI SOUND LIKE AN IDIOT.

The next day Dr Dickinson got us back on the bus in order to take us to this secret training facility.

"Where the hell are we going?" I grumbled as the bus took us deep into the mountains.

My answer came as the road started to get bumpy. Kai and I fastened our seat belts as the road got so rocky that Tyson was flying out of his seat and into the ceiling.

"You should've buckled up Tyson." Ray said as Tyson continued to fly every whicha way.

By the time Tyson had actually buckled up, the bus had stopped.

"Alright kids, you're here." The bus driver said.

We all got off and started to look around. The scenery was absolutely beautiful, like something you'd expect to find in a painting. A log cabin sat not two-hundred feet nearby with a gentle stream flowing gently beside it. There were mountains in the distance covered by evergreens and pine trees and small thin strings of blue indicating other streams.

'It would be a nice place to live eventually, possibly as an elderly person.'

"Alright kids, I'll be back for you in two days' time." The driver said before heading out.

"Great, so we're stuck here in the middle of nowhere." Tyson groaned as we were approached by some kid.

"Hi there, I'm Antonio and I've been asked by Mr Dickinson to train you guys."

"Alright, while you boys do that, I'm going to explore and do my own training." I stated and began walking away when Ray called back.

"Hey Ashe, how come you never show us how you train?" I smirked evily.

"Because none of you would believe me if I told you and you'd pass out within the first few hours…see ya."

I kept one earbud in with 'Fire and Ice' so that I could hear what was going on around me. I stepped over roots and ducked under branches until I came to a tranquil spot of water surrounded by willow trees, practically concealing the place from the untrained eye. Wild flowers grew beneath the willows with small rose bushes scattered around. A lone blossom tree bloomed near a small waterfall, it's petals gracing the water with its presence.

"Wow, it's beautiful."

'_Indeed, Mistress.'_ Anivia replied.

I took off my coat and sat beside the water, pulling out a wooden flute with a broken sapphire ring tied to it. I paused my music and pulled out small portable speakers attaching them to my I-POD. Scrolling through the songs until I came upon the instrumental version of 'When You Believe'. Pressing play I allowed the music to play as I took up my flute and played along with the song, singing the lyrics in my head.

Many nights we've prayed  
>With no proof anyone could hear<br>In our hearts a hopeful song  
>We barely understood<p>

Now we are not afraid  
>Although we know there's much to fear<br>We were moving mountains  
>Long before we knew we could<p>

There can be miracles when you believe  
>Though hope is frail, it's hard to kill<br>Who knows what miracles you can achieve  
>When you believe somehow you will<br>You will when you believe

In this time of fear  
>When prayers so often proves in vain<br>Hope seemed like the summer birds  
>Too swiftly flown away<p>

Yet now I'm standing here  
>My heart's so full, I can't explain<br>Seeking faith and speaking words  
>I never thought I'd say<p>

There can be miracles when you believe  
>Though hope is frail, it's hard to kill<br>Who knows what miracles you can achieve  
>When you believe somehow you will, oh<br>You will when you believe

Oh, and when you're blinded by the fame  
>Can't see your way clear through the rain<br>A small but still resilient voice  
>Says hope is very near<p>

There can be miracles when you believe  
>Though hope is frail, it's hard to kill<br>Who knows what miracles you can achieve  
>When you believe somehow you will<br>Now you will, you will when you believe

You will when you believe

"I miss you, Grandmama." I whispered as I looked up into the coldless sky.

I paused for a few seconds before starting my training, using my speakers to listen to music. I had already done my pushups, sit ups, and ran laps before coming here so I did my three-hundred trigger releases per hand to 'Du Haust', 'Everytime We Touch', 'Just Dance', 'Going Under', and 'Dark Wings'. I splashed some cool water on my face before tying my coat around a thin tree to do my four-hundred tree punches per hand while listening 'Ready or Not', 'Peace ^^', 'What I've Done', 'Thousandfold', 'Womanizer', and 'Indestructible'. When I finished, I brushed my coat of any leaves, twigs, and anything else it accumulated while I punched it. I dipped my hands in the cooling water to give them a rest. I looked at my watch to see I'd been here for almost three hours.

"I wonder if they're wondering where I am?" I asked aloud as I splashed more water on my face, washing away the sweat that had accumulated.

'_I'm sure Master Kai is wondering where you are. Perhaps you should head back to the cabin at least to eat, since I know you'll go right back to training.'_ Anivia suggested and I knew she was right so I gathered my things and put my coat back on before making my way back to the cabin which was a little more than half a mile away.

As I got closer, I heard a loud clunking noise. Coming into the clearing, I saw Kai chopping wood. His scarf off as well as his arm gauntlets, leaving his muscles unrestrained and glistening in the late afternoon sun.

'Son…of…a…bitch…Why do I keep thinking he's so fucking hot? I have to stop thinking about him! It's not right and it'll only distract me in the tournament.' I scolded myself as I walked over across the clearing.

As I got closer, Kai took notice of me and stopped chopping.

"There you are. I was wondering where you'd run off to. Have you really been exploring all this time?" He asked as he set the axe down and took up a bottle of water.

"No…I found a secluded spot about half a mile out from here and trained there. Only took me twenty minutes to get back." I said as I took my jacket off and sat down, taking the bottle he offered me.

"Well sounds a lot better than what's been happening around here. Turns out that kid Antonio can't blade for shit. We've been training at the waterfall to improve accuracy, lifting rocks as weights, and of course," he indicated to the pile of wood he'd just chopped, "chopping wood."

I gave him back the bottle and he finished off the water.

"So what's to eat around here?" I asked.

"Not much and whatever we do have has either been already eaten by Tyson or will be within the next few hours." He responded.

I sighed and went inside what was there. Bottles of water, some veggies, fruit and some meat.

"Doesn't seem to be enough to last all six of us for two days.' So I grabbed an apple, went to my bag and grabbed a few things before heading back out to see the others returning.

"Hey Ashe, when'd you get back?" Max asked as I grabbed my coat.

"A few minutes ago but it seems I'll have to go out again."

"Why?" Ray asked as I slid my coat on.

"We don't have enough food for the six of us so it seems I'll have to get more." I responded as I put everything in my pockets.

"So how are you gonna get food. We're miles away from any stores." Tyson said and I resisted the strong urge to smack him to see if that would knock some sense in him.

"I'm going hunting you dumbass. Kai: get a fire going, Ray: see if you can find a big enough pot to make stew in, Max: go inside and cut up the vegetables that are in the fridge, Tyson and Antonio: go and get some water to cook with and separate bucket for drinking. Once the fire's going, boil the drinking water so it'll kill all the germs and bacteria. I'll be back soon." I said as I pulled out my hunting knife from my boot and walked off to see what I could find.

I sharpened a few sticks to a point and came across a meadow where some deer were nibbling at the grass. I was able to wound a buck to bring it down before using my knife to finish the job as quickly as possible without prolonging it's suffering. I sheathed my knife and slung the creatures body over my shoulder.

"I've been gone for at least fourty-five minutes. Let's see who's done their chore.' I grinned as I hauled the animal back to the cabin where I saw Kai working on the fire with Ray that seemed to be coming along nicely with a pot over it.

I dropped the body near the fire which startled the boy a bit by its loud thump.

"Geeze Ashe." Ray exclaimed with wide eyes.

"Is there an extra bucket?" I asked as I shed my coat and gloves.

"Yeah around back, why?"

"Because I'm going to need something to put the stuff we can't eat in. Now if you'll excuse me I need to change my pants." I said and headed inside.

I put on an old pair of shorts and took my boots and socks off, leaving me in my bare feet. I grabbed my hunting knife and went back outside to see Tyson poking the deer with a stick.

"It's dead, you moron." I said as I rolled my eyes.

"Now go and train some more. This is going to take some time." I said and I knelt down next to the deer and pulled out my music and speakers.

The boys were still staring at me as I pressed shuffle.

"What the hell are you waiting for?" I asked. "Unless you wanna get completely grosses out, I suggest you get moving." I warned as I started the process of skinning the deer.

Quick as a flash, all the boys had gone…except Kai. He just sat nearby watching me silently. Once I skinned it, I started cutting away the meat and tossed it into the pot over the fire. As I worked on the deer, Kai tended to the fire. The rest of the boys returned almost two hours later as I started cleaning up the mess.

"Alright, I'm going to the waterfall to wash up. Tyson take the bucket and go toss it in the woods. Max, go get the vegetables and put them in. Stir occasionally and remember this right now: Anyone tries to follow me and I will blow out your kneecaps." I growled darkly and the boys shrank back in fear.

I gathered my clothes and a towel, heading to the waterfall but not before giving the boys one last glare. I didn't stay in the waterfall for too long, just long enough to wash the blood from my body and knife. I was back at the cabin within half an hour.

"Ashe, can we eat yet? I'm starving!" Tyson groaned as he clutched his stomach as if he was in agony.

"Stop complaining, Tyson. I'll put some spices in and then we can eat. Ray, are there any bowls?" The nekojin nodded.

"Yeah, I brought them out with spoons while you were gone.

I nodded in response and placed my clothes inside, gathering up the spices and put them in the pot before serving up the stew five minutes later. As everyone dug into their meal, their faces lit up in joy.

"Holy crap Ashe, this is good!" Tyson exclaimed as he began shoveling the stew into his mouth.

"Yeah, when and how'd you learn to cook like this?" Max asked as he too began to enjoy his meal.

I paused slightly but answered before anyone sensed anything.

"My father taught me when I was young." I mentioned quietly, praying that no one would say anything else around the subject.

Thankfully no one did. Instead they talked about their training which I absolutely paid no attention to. Later that night, the rest of the boys went inside for bed while I stayed outside with the fire. I laid my coat down on the grass nearby and laid on top of it, looking up at the stars.

"It's really a beautiful night." I said aloud as I held Anivia in my hand.

What I didn't expect was a response.

"Yeah it really is."

Surprised and unexpected I shot up with my gun pointed directly at the speaker who wore just a white tank top and shorts.

"Damn it Kai! Haven't you learned by now not to do that?" I scowled as I lowered my gun and laid back down, Kai taking a seat beside me.

"Shouldn't you be in bed with the others?" I asked.

He grunted before answering.

"Tyson's snoring kept me up and I noticed you still weren't in so I came out."

I think I felt my cheeks heat up but I felt Anivia go ice cold in my palm.

"Sometimes I wish I had a camera. You can't see the stars like this back home." I mentioned as the fire cackled a bit beside me.

Kai didn't really say anything in a response but I expected him not to. I don't know how long Kai and I laid outside but I apparently fell asleep because the next time I opened my eyes, birds were pecking the dirt for food and sun had started to shine overhead.

'Damn it, I overslept!' I looked to my side to see Kai sleeping peacefully.

Being as careful and quiet as possible, I grabbed my coat, I-POD, Anivia and headed to the secluded training spot I found the day before. Immediately I started training, letting up only to have a small drink from the lake and eat some black berries that grew nearby. It was past sundown by the time I stopped.

'_Mistress, perhaps you should stop for the night. You've still got to make it back to the cabin and if you keep going, you're never going to make it there before you pass out. Do you remember what happened the last time you over exerted yourself?'_ I huffed in annoyance.

'Yeah, yeah. I passed out and was bed-ridden for the following three days.' I thought as I splashed some water on my face.

'_Exactly and you had Master Kai worried sick!'_

I remembered that memory; it was almost two years ago. I had pushed myself over the limit with my training and passed out from exhaustion. I awoke lying in a bed to see Kai sitting in a chair by the bed, sleeping. I had tried to sit up but my body started searing in pain and my grunts to suppress it woke Kai. He told me how he found me passed out in the field near the warehouse and I've been asleep for two days and my body was so sore I couldn't get out of bed for three. I thanked Kai for caring for me but deep down I was a little upset. I hate it when people think they have to care for me. I've had to fend on my own for a long time and I don't need anyone else to care.

But never the less, I know Anivia was right so I gathered my gear and headed back to the cabin. Even though the sun had set, I could see in the dark and made it back to the cabin in no time where a fire was going nice and big. The others were seated around it with bowls presumably eating the leftovers from last night's venison stew.

"Hey Ashe, where the hell've you been all damn day? We just spent the last fourty-five minutes looking for you. Didn't you hear us calling your name?" Tyson asked with a mouth full of food.

"Well considering that I was training in a secluded area half a mile from here, no I didn't hear." I answered as I took the bowl of food Ray offered to me and sat between him and Kai.

"Did you even come back once to eat or drink?" Kenny asked as he set his empty bowl and opened up Dizzi.

"Nope. I got my sustenance from a stream and blackberry bushes that had grown nearby."

"Well at least you came back this time." Kai noted and from the look on his face, he was recalling the same memory that I had earlier.

"Yeah but next time, leave a note or somethin' will ya? We got up this morning and you were nowhere to be see. Did you even sleep last night cause your bed looked like no one touched it." Tyson rambled on and I just sighed heavily.

"First of all Tyson, I can go where I want when I want without anyone friggin' permission. Secondly, where and when I sleep is of no concern to anyone. I fell asleep last night out here without meaning to and since I overslept, I had to make up the training that I missed." I simply explained as I ate my meal in peace.

Later that night as I went to get some water for the fire, I heard yells and frustrated grunts. Curiously, I followed the noise to find Antonio trying to practice with his blade, but he didn't seem to be getting very far if anywhere at all.

"You need to focus and rethink your stance." A voice came from off to the side.

Kai stepped out from behind some trees and approached the frustrated kid. I watched from the shadows as Kai helped improve Antonio's skill.

'Now there's something you don't see every day.' I chuckled in my head.

'_Indeed Mistress. Master Kai isn't the kind of person to just willingly help someone. But then again, neither are you.' _

I sat there for hours watching Kai train the kid, improving his technique and form. Although it was hard to see at first, Kai seemed to somewhat enjoy teaching Antonio. The kid may have been stubborn like Tyson but he listened and absorbed Kai's every word. I decided to leave the two alone and went back to the cabin, leaving the bucket of water beside the dim embers of the fire. I changed and crawled into bed, ready to head back to the city. As I came back to the cabin after my morning training routine there was a huge noise that seemed almost like something blew up. Quick as a flash, we all raced inside to see Chief and Ray coming out of the room next door, coughing from the smoke that started flowing out.

"Ray, Kenny are you guys alright?" Max asked as we peered in the room.

The computer that was sitting on the desk, was busted up while the rest of the room was practically shredded with holes, dents, and cracks. Spinning in the middle of the floor was Drigger.

"Looks like Drigger's tune up went tell." I commented as I looked around the shambles of the room. "Maybe a bit too well." I added as the overhead light came crashing down.

Luckily, the bus came for us around noon and out came Mr Dickinson.

"Well I hope you kids got a kick out of the training facility here." The old man laughed at our expressions of horror.

We all piled onto the bus and headed back to actual civilization though I knew I would miss the secluded scenery where I trained and being able to look at the stars clearly without anything obscuring them from view. As the bus pulled away, I had a strange feeling that soon the Bladebreakers would be faced with an extremely difficult challenge…The question, however, was what.

Fire and Ice – Within Temptation

When You Believe Instrumental – Celtic Woman version

Du Haust – Rammstein

Everytime We Touch – Cascada

Just Dance – Lady Gaga

Going Under – Evanescence

Dark Wings – Within Temptation

Ready or Not – Cascada

Peace^^ - BeForU

What I've Done – Linkin Park

Thousandfold – Eluveitie

Womanizer – Britney Spears

Indestructible - Disturbed


	9. No Easy Path To Glory

DISCLAIMER: I OWN NOTHING OF BEYBLADE! I ONLY REALLY OWN JUST ASHE HERSELF. HER BITBEAST ANIVIA, ISN'T MINE. SHE WAS FIRST AND FORMOST CREATED AS A CHARACTER TO PLAY IN THE GAME LEAGUE OF LEGENDS BUT SHE'S JUST SO AWESOME BUT AGAIN I DON'T CLAIM HER AS MY OWN! I'M TRYING TO NOT COPY THE DIALOGUE FROM BEYBLADE BUT I'M ALSO TRYING TO MAKE SURE THAT I DON'T MAKE KAI SOUND LIKE AN IDIOT.

**Author's Note: I forgot to mention this earlier but I bumped up everyone's ages. Kai, Ashe and Ray are 14, Tyson, Kenny, and Max are 13. Why? Because it fits my story.**

Two days after coming back from the training facility in the in the mountains, we went to a charity event. Boy was that a friggin nightmare. At first it wasn't so bad…until Emily had to show up…I stayed as far away from her as possible so as not to shoot her in order to shut her up. Thank god Kai was there to keep me occupied. We explored the event a bit, all the while not really saying anything…but that's our usual routine. We got back to the hotel with the team where Tyson immediately ordered room service.

"Tyson, don't you think you've had enough to eat?" I asked as he started scarfing down the sandwich's that arrived.

Luckily we all managed to grab at least one sandwich without getting our hands bitten off. After getting a quiet night's rest we were hauled on a bus, headed for Las Vegas for the tournament. It was a five hour trip and the bus's DVD player was broken as well as the air conditioner so all the windows were wide open but that didn't do much good against the heat.

"Man, I can't believe we can't watch 'Watchmen' or 'The Pacifier'." Tyson groaned not twenty minutes into the trip.

"Oh for the love of god Tyson, shut the hell up!" I yelled while clutching my head in pain.

"Geeze what crawled up her ass?" Tyson grumbled back.

"Chill out Tyson. She gets headaches from long car rides. Plus the heat isn't doing anything to help her." Kai defended and if my head wasn't pounding I think I would've smiled.

"Ashe you better lay down and rest. I know for a damn fact that you didn't get much sleep last night. You know better than to try and train as well as compete on only two hours of sleep." Kai ordered.

'God he's so hot when he's barking orders. NO DAMN IT, STOP DOING THAT!'

"That's a good idea and all Kai, but where the hell am I supposed to lay down?"

"Fold you coat up and lay it on my lap as a pillow. It's a lot better than using one of the seats." He said, with his eyes shut and arms crossed.

Ok, now I'm sure I was blushing but I prayed that it was just the heat as I folded my coat and placed it on his lap before laying down. I put my headphones in and turned the volume almost up to max with the songs on shuffle. I closed my eyes and tried not to focus on the fact that I was laying in Kai's lap.

'Anivia, what's happening to me? I don't know what's going on and it's starting to freak me out a lot.'

'_Mistress, I have been around for a long time and I happen to know that you're going through all the stages of your first crush. You're on your way to becoming a woman…My little girl is growing up…I'm so proud.'_

'Hey I'm not a little girl anymore and you should be used to watching your 'children' grow up by now.'

'_Yes but you've always been one of my favorites. I'm proud of you sweetheart and I know she is too. You've come a long way.'_

'Anivia, can you tell me more about her please?' I pleaded.

'_Another time, Mistress. Now get some sleep child. You need it.'_

I felt Anivia go ice cold in my pocket before coursing through my whole body. It felt nice against the hot weather and soon I felt myself drift off to sleep listening to the instrumental version of 'My Heart Will Go On'.

I must have slept the while trip because when Kai shook me awake, it was night and the bus had stopped in front of the stadium.

"Ashe, we're here." Kai whispered.

I sat up to see all the pretty lights of Vegas but my head still throbbed. I rubbed my temples a bit to try and cease the pounding before gathering my things and following Kai off the bus, though I immediately wanted to get right back on. Tyson was already confronting the All Starz and Emily was making her way over to where Kai and I were standing.

"Well I hope you guys aren't too keen on beating us. We've got the scientific equipment to make our blades the best. And, I think I've got you figured out, Ashe." She stated snottily.

"And what have you learned?" I asked coldly.

"You'll just have to find out when we school you in the tournament." She replied before following her team inside.

"That bitch…" I growled lowly as the team and I headed inside a few minutes later.

After registering, we prepared for our first fight against the Renegades.

"Well Ray, are you ready to win the first battle for us?" Tyson asked with a little too much enthusiasm.

"Wait Ray, let Ashe take the first battle." Kai spoke out as I detected demand in his voice.

"Ray I have full confidence in your skills but I wanna give little miss-know-it-all Emily a show. She wants to find out what makes me tic? I'll show her." I growled as I took my jacket off and tossed it to Kai before heading out to the ring where some kid stood with a Mexican looking guitar/banjo.

"Let's get this over with." I growled as I pulled out my launcher and loaded Anivia.

The guy placed his blade on the strings and played a chord, releasing his blade while I shot mine. The battle didn't even last ten seconds as Anivia clashed with him a few times before shattering the blade completely. I yawned in boredom and looked into the crowd to see Emily sitting with Judy. Their faces were absolutely priceless as Anivia soared back to my hand. I gave them a smirk before returning to the others where Kai handed me back my jacket. I sat down next to him with a triumphant look as Max stepped up to the dish. Knowing that he was going to win, I pulled out my I-POD which still had a good amount of charge so during Max's battle I listened to 'The Kinslayer' and 'Girlfriend' and as Tyson stepped up to bat I noticed his opponents launcher.

"Prick stole my idea!" I growled.

The guy's launcher was an old western revolver that was modified with the blade on top near the end of the barrel and a rip cord through the barrel. After I let out steam, I put my headphones back in and listened to 'Sk8er Boy', 'It's My Life', and 'Bare Grace Misery' during the battle. That made me feel a lot better, though my headache still remained so as soon as we were declared the winners, I went straight to the bus where they boys joined me a few minutes later. We arrived back at the hotel within a few minutes and our suit was good. There were three king sized beds so that meant we all partnered up with someone. Kai and I got the bed closest to the sliding glass doors, Ray and Max took the middle bed, leaving Tyson and Kenny to get the bed closest to the bathroom. Tyson called for room service and the rest of the night went by quite nicely. The next day when we got off the bus, we saw Judy and Emily standing by while some workers unloaded all this high tech beyblading equipment.

'Geeze, these guys are a bunch of lazy bums. They let all this stuff do their thinking for them. They don't even have physical bitbeasts, their just artificially created.'

'_Indeed Mistress.'_

We went inside to see we were facing a team called the Savage Slammers.

'Boy the names are starting to become really corny.' I thought as Ray stepped up to take the first opponent, Diego, who started telling this story about how he lost his blade in a lake and some iguana went and fished it out for him.

For some reason…and I don't really know why…Ray lost his concentration which cost him the battle.

"Great, the score stands at one to zero in favor of the friggin Slammers. Faaaantastic." I groaned as I slumped forward on the bench.

Max was next against Fernando who proved to be a bit tricky with a spring loaded blade but Draciel came through with a win which put all the pressure on Tyson.

"Tyson, relax would ya? You'll be fine." Kenny said as he readied Dizzi.

I waited for Tyson to leave and meet Axel before I said anything.

"He better be fine Chief cause if we don't make it to the semifinals, then he's gonna get the ass kicking of a life time from yours truly." Kai chuckled a bit beside me at my threat.

"Come on Tyson! Stay focused!" Max called out as Tyson started to get really frustrated.

"RRRRGHHHH! Dragoon, attack! Phantom Hurricane!"

The wind started to really pick up as Dragoon emerged, blowing harshly.

"Remain calm people, it's just a hurricane!" DJ called.

"Oh really? I thought it was just a little mild weather!" I shouted back over the roar of the wind.

When the storm finally ended, only one blade was left spinning.

"And the winner is….DRAGOON AND TYSON! THE BLADEBREAKERS ARE MOVING ONTO THE SEMIFINALS!" The crowd started cheering for the team as we left the ring to watch the All Starz.

As soon as we got there, some guy parachuted out of a plane that flew over the open stadium.

"And here comes Michael, the leader of the All Starz!" The ref called out as Michael opened his parachute, landing near the dish.

Then he launched his blade via throwing it in a baseball the opened up to reveal a blade inside. His bitbeast emerged which turned out to be an Eagle.

"Go Eagle Blade!"

Almost immediately, the Eagle shattered his opponent's blade making Michael the winner.

"And that's it! The All Starz are moving onto the semifinals!" The ref declared and the whole team had this smug look on their faces.

"Alright we came , we saw, we conquered. Now let's get the hell outta here." I stated as the All Starz left.

The team agrees with me and to celebrate out heading to the semifinals, Mr Dickinson treated us to a nice restaurant with an all you can eat buffet.

"I'd like to propose a toast, to the best team who's going to make it to the top!" We all clinked our glasses or orange soda together, except Tyson who got grape soda.

The food was really good and it seemed like we all enjoyed it…Actually Tyson seemed to enjoy it a little too much. While I was completely fine with one plate of food, Tyson went for third, fourth, even fifths. The amount of food he was piling onto his plate was starting to scare the people around him.

"Alright, I've had enough." I muttered as I stood up and walked over to Tyson who was helping himself to more mashed potatoes.

So before he could help himself to more food, I reached out and grabbed him by the ear.

"OOWW! Hey leg 'go! Leg 'go!" But I didn't release him until we were back at the table.

"Tyson, just because we're at an all you can eat buffet, doesn't mean that you should stuff yourself full! Now stop eating. You're going to make yourself sick and tomorrows a really big deal so don't screw it up tonight!" Tyson was still holding his ear as we ate our nice dessert of cheesecake and ice cream.

However apparently Tyson didn't listen to anything I said because the next day when I came back from training, he was hauling over a bucket.

"What'd I tell ya? Eating too much can cause problems in the long run." I said snarky while I saw Kai getting out of the shower, once again, with no shirt!

He was wearing shorts but my gaze was more focused on his tremendous six-pack which seemed to get even firmer. I honestly don't think the sculptor Raphael could've sculpted something like Kai. His biceps were just as muscular and firm as his abs. I swear I caught myself drooling even though my mouth was closed.

'God, I've got to stop this! It's not right, these thoughts can't become open speeches! No matter how fucking hot his is…God he's hott!' I groaned inwardly as I flopped down on the bed we shared.

"What's up with you?" Kai asked me as he sat down near the edge of the bed while drying his hair.

He looked at me with those deep amber eyes that seemed to have a throbbing hypnotism to their intense gaze.

'OH GOD!'

"Nothing. I'm just sick and tired of trying to help Tyson cause everything I say goes in one ear and out the other. Next time, I'm just going not going to say anything. At least I can give that science bitch Emily another show. I'm still debating on whether or not I'm gonna play with my opponent this time." I grinned evilly.

Kai smirked at my statement.

"Yeah, you haven't played with any of your opponent's yet. I was beginning to wonder if you were really bored or something."

"Meh." I couldn't really say anything else because I found my eyes roaming over Kai's hot body.

His bulging biceps, his muscular shoulders, his beautifully sculpted chest that made him look like a friggin' Adonis!

'Damn it! Cut it out!'

Luckily, Kai was too busy drying his hair to notice, thank God. As soon as Ray was done, I immediately grabbed my clothes and spent thirty minutes under the cooling ice water. When I finally came out, Kai had his shirt on but not his arm gauntlets so once again I found myself drooling and staring. Luckily the sound of Tyson retching broke me from my trance so I went outside for some fresh air.

As I let the wind dry my hair, I put my I-POD on shuffle…Although I wanted to chuck it over the balcony cause the first song that happened to come up was 'Once Upon A Dream'.

'Oh now that's just cruel.'

So I flipped through until I came upon 'The Night'. As the song played I looked out over the city which seemed to be always buzzing.

'Heh, maybe they should rename Las Vegas 'The City of Lights' instead of Paris.' I smirked at the thought as a group of guys passed under but one of them looked up and spotted me.

"Hey baby, whatcha doin' up there all alone?" His buddy's looked up at me and eyed me with waaaaayy too much lust.

"Yeah c'mon down. We'll keep you company hot stuff."

'Do you think anyone would notice if I shot these guys right now?' I asked Anivia as I reached for my gun.

'_Now Mistress, you don't need to kill them. You're not a killer and you know it.'_ I sighed knowing that she was…well partially true.

So instead, I turned around and back flipped over the balcony catching the guys attention as my boots came in contact with the cement.

"Damn girl, you're limber. I like that. I bet your even more limber in bed. What do ya say? You wanna come with us and give us a little show?" He and his four buddies started getting closer so I smiled seductively as I let my coat drop off my shoulders to expose my chest a bit more in my tube top.

I may be 14 but I'm developed.

"So…you wanna see how limber I am?" I asked while pressing my body against his.

His arms snaked around my waist, pulling our middles together as he smirked lustfully. He was getting really happy.

"Oh yeah, baby."

He leaded down, just about to kiss me when I shoved my knee up in his groin. He started singing in a falsetto pitch, I think streetlights broke. Then I brought my fist up and connected it with his nose, blood spurting. His friends immediately tried to attack as I leap-frogged over one of them causing them to collide. Once they regained their composure, I redirected one of their punches so that it hit another guy in the face. I punched another guy in the gut then thrust my palm up, coming in contact with his jaw. Blood spurted out as well as teeth as he held his jaw in pain. One guy tried to stab me with a knife to fall. I grabbed it and spun around, stabbing the palm of one behind me. He started screaming as his hand bled like a faucet and I gave him a roundhouse kick to the head, knocking him back into a lamppost. The guy with the missing teeth tried to keep me in a hold but I threw my head back into his nose, shattering it. The guy who had the knife had finally gotten to his feet and pulled out another knife, trying this time to slice my throat but I bent backwards into a bridge position before thrusting my feet up into his chest throwing him behind me, face first into the ground. As they all lay beaten and bloodied I approached the leader who was still holding his nose with one hand, groin in the other. Smirking, I picked him up by his collar and brought him dangerously close to my face.

"Next time you hit on a girl, make sure she can't kick you ass…like I just did. Now you might wanna take your boys and go see a doctor. If you don't get your noses fixed soon, you'll be deformed for the rest of your life and you'll never have sex again." I warned as I dropped him.

I started to head back into the hotel when I heard him say something.

"Cruel bitch. I hope you get fucked up real soon." He choked out while spitting out blood.

I just laughed before whipping out my gun and spun around, shooting him in the shoulder and then in the knee. His buddies, who had finally woken up ran over and carried him off in fear while he was screaming in pain. I ignored the scared looks of the hotel staff that I passed as I got on the elevator and headed up to the third floor where our room was. I opened the door with the room key to see all the guys out on the balcony, their backs to me. I silently shut the door.

"What'cha looking at?" I asked as I crossed my arms.

All the guys jumped in surprise, even Kai. Tyson jumped so high he almost fell over the edge so Ray and Max had to pull him up but then he scrambled back inside the bathroom to throw up.

"Ashe, what the hell happened? We hear gunshots coming from outside and then you walk in here covered in spattered blood! What was going on?" Ray asked.

"Aw man, I just showered and now I'm covered in blood? Damn it." I said as I looked at myself over in the mirror on the beauru.

So I went to my bag and got more clean clothes. The guys continued to stand there.

"Ashe, what happened?" Kai asked but I could detect the demand and anger in his voice.

"It's no big deal. A bunch of guys were hitting on me and tried to grope me so I kicked their asses. Nothing to it."

"And the gunshots?" Kai addidly asked.

"The leader called me a bitch and said he hoped I'd get fucked up real soon so I shot him." I said casually.

Their mouths dropped to the floor.

"So y-you killed him?" Kenny asked but I shook my head.

"Relax guys I didn't kill him. I just shot him once in the shoulder and once in the knee. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to wash their blood off me. Tyson, out. If you have to throw up, go do it in a bucket." I said as I kicked him out.

This time, I took only fifteen minutes since we had to get to the stadium. When I came out, the boys were getting ready to head out.

"Guess I'm gonna have to skip wearing my jacket today." So before we left, I called the front desk and asked to have my jacket dry cleaned.

They said yes and that they'd have it done by later tonight. So we all headed to the tournament, though we all stayed away from Tyson who was still throwing up. On the way there, I listened to 'Danger Zone' and 'One Step Closer'. Luckily when we got there, there wasn't any loading or unloading of high tech equipment so that helped make my day. We headed into the ring to see out opponents, Spintensity.

"First up it's Max vs. Luiz!" The two took their places and … "LET IT RIP!"

Luiz's blade started bouncing around in short bursts like a Mexican jumping bean.

"I thought this was beyblade, not a dance off!" I yelled out to the ring as the blade started to mimic Luiz's salsa dance movements before it bounced itself on top of Draciel.

"C'mon Max, show this dancer the true moves of beyblading.!" Ray shouted as Kenny was working fast on Dizzi.

"Alright Dizzi, what's your analysis?"

"Are you ready for this one? Luiz is a dancer and what is one key thing you need in a dance?"

That's when it hit me.

"Rhythm."

"Bingo, Ashe wins. Luiz's beyblade is just one big repetitive rhythm."

"Hey Max, you catch any of that?" Ray asked and Max nodded.

Thanks to Dizzi's thoughts, Max won his battle.

"And the winner is…Max of the Bladebreakers!"

Ray went next. His opponent was holding a modified fishing pole, I facepalmed.

"I thought we were here to kick ass, not go fishing." I groaned as Kai grunted beside me.

What made things even more complicated was when Frankie's blade seemed to multiply. But Ray didn't seemed phased by the supposed optical illusion.

"Go, Drigger Rush!"

Almost instantly, Drigger seemed to just vanish into thin air…but he was just spinning and moving a lot faster. Frankie freaked out and didn't see Drigger knock him into the air then finished him off.

"And the winner is…Ray of the Bladebreakers!"

The familiar scream of girls screaming for Ray echoed through my ears.

"Oh god, if that screaming doesn't cease and desist I'm going to get another headache." I muttered as I rubbed my temples as Kai placed a muscular hand on my shoulder.

"Don't worry Ashe, as soon as you kick ass we're going straight back to the hotel. We'll order take out and put Tyson in the bathroom. Sound good?"

"Sounds great. Get ready to leave." I said as I approached the dish where my opponent was this kid, Mario, who was on a team with Max and that bitch Emily for a battle at the charity event.

Like many others before him, he was freaked out by my 'launcher' and we launched our blades at the end of the count. He tried to knock Anivia off balance by constantly slamming into her but she stayed strong as if this kid was nothing but a gentle spring breeze. I yawned bordly.

"Alright, I'm bored and I want to go so Anivia let's finish this."

She complied with me request and knocked Mario's blade outta the ring in an instant.

"And the winner is…Ashe of the Bladebreakers!" They're moving onto the finals where they'll compete against the All Starz!"

The crowd cheered our names as Anivia came back to my hand and I went back to the others who were jumping for joy, except for Tyson.

"Uh guys we haven't won the tournament yet so isn't it a little too early to be celebrating?" But they just seemed to ignore me so I just sighed and headed out of the stadium for the bus with Kai at my side. I could hear his scarf flapping in the wind behind him.

"Do you think they'll ever listen to me? Cause I think I'm just going to stop saying anything at this point." Kai immediately grabbed my wrist, surprising me.

As I turned to face him I was just as surprised at the almost saddening look he had on his face.

"You can't stop talking. Your words are the only thing that keeps me sane while being on this 'team'. I'm always listening, you know that."

"Yeah but I'm sick of being ignored. Sure I expect that from Tyson, but not Ray or Kenny or even Max."

Kai gave my hand a gentle squeeze before we got on the bus and our hands released each other. The feeling was disappointing…sad even but I just brushed it away as we sat in the back of the bus. I pulled out my I-POD and listened to 'The Warrior', 'Livin On A Prayer', and 'That's What You Get' by the time the others actually got on the bus. I was almost done with 'Omnos' when we arrived back at the hotel. As I stepped off the bus, I heard laughter from voices that sounded very familiar. Looking to my right, I saw the same group of guys whose asses I severely kicked earlier that day. Their leader was in a wheelchair with wraps around his left knee, right shoulder and his nose. He was being pushed by the guy whose jaw I broke along with his nose. He was still missing teeth. The guy pulled the two knives on me, was on crutches with a wrap around his nose while the guy who got his palm stabbed had just a wrapped hand and nose. The last guy seemed to be the least hurt as he just had a bruised cheek. Everyone else besides him had at least one black eye. This gave me an idea. I pulled Kai back towards me and whispered in his ear.

"Hey, wanna see something funny? Watch this." He looked a bit curious as I turned and raised my fingers to my lips, letting out a loud whistle.

"Oh boys." I called as I gave them an innocent wave.

Their heads snapped up in my direction.

"HOLY HELL!" They screamed like little girls and ran away, pushing their leader down the hill until they lost control and he crashed into some garbage cans that were sitting on the curb.

Kai chuckled at the scene.

"Damn, you really did a number on those guys. And you didn't get hurt at all?" But I shook my head.

"Nope, though the one on crutches tried to knife me twice but failed both times." I thought I saw Kai shake a bit as I told him this but I just pushed the thought to the back of my mind as we went inside and up to our room where they boys were getting ready for bed and my coat laying on our bed.

Tyson was already passed out on the bed but he was sprawled out all over the bed so Kenny had no room.

"Hey Ray, gimme a hand in moving Tyson to the couch." Ray complied with my request so now Tyson was still sound asleep as we practically threw him down.

I placed a bucket beside it…just in case. Then I crawled into bed after placing my gun under my pillow and plugging in my I-POD. Kai and the others followed suit and the lights went out. I fell asleep with Anivia in my palm and 'You Would Have Loved This' playing softly in my ears.

My Heart Will Go On Instrumental – Celine Dion

The Kinslayer – Nightwish

Girlfriend – Avril Lavigne

Sk8ter Boy – Avril Lavigne

It's My Life – Bon Jovi

Bare Grace Misery – Nightwish

Once Upon A Dream – Sleeping Beauty

The Night – Disturbed

Danger Zone – Kenny Loggins

One Step Closer – Linkin Park

The Warrior – Scandal

Livin On A Prayer – Bon Jovi

That's What You Get – Paramore

Omnos – Eluvitie

You Would Have Loved This – Tarja Turunen


	10. Expanded Horizons

DISCLAIMER: I OWN NOTHING OF BEYBLADE! I ONLY REALLY OWN JUST ASHE HERSELF. HER BITBEAST ANIVIA, ISN'T MINE. SHE WAS FIRST AND FORMOST CREATED AS A CHARACTER TO PLAY IN THE GAME LEAGUE OF LEGENDS BUT SHE'S JUST SO AWESOME BUT AGAIN I DON'T CLAIM HER AS MY OWN! I'M TRYING TO NOT COPY THE DIALOGUE FROM BEYBLADE BUT I'M ALSO TRYING TO MAKE SURE THAT I DON'T MAKE KAI SOUND LIKE AN IDIOT.

I GOT AN CURIOUS QUESTION IN ONE OF MY REVIEWS AND I'D LIKE TO ANSWER IT. BOTH ASHE'S GUN AND LAUNCHER ARE MODIFIED BLACK AND SILVER DEAGLE HANDHELD GUNS. THE INISDE OF THE LAUNCHER HAS BEEN MODIFIED SO THAT THE BULLET CHAMBER'S AND THE BARREL COULD FIT ANIVIA'S BLADE. THE REASON SHE USES THOSE GUNS WILL BE EXPLAINED LATER ON MOST LIKELY IN SEASON 3.

ONLY 10 MORE CHAPTERS TILL THE END OF SEASON 1!

I woke up the next morning and did my usual training while everyone else slept. Before I left the room, I placed the blanket back over Kai that had gotten knocked off. He looked so peaceful when he slept, so calm and innocent.

When I got back around eight thirty, everyone was starting to get up. Ray was heading into the shower while Tyson, Kenny and Max were in the kitchen eating. Kai was out on the balcony, completely dressed with arm gauntlets and all. I grabbed an apple from the fruit bowl and headed outside to stand with him.

"What are we looking at?" I asked, taking a bit out of the apple.

"Nothing. Just getting some fresh air out and away from those idiots. Why is it that every time I wake up, your gone?"

"I'm out training, Kai. You know that already so why do you ask?" He turned and looked at me with his intoxicating amber eyes.

"Ashe, you were gone when Tyson's snoring woke me up at five. What time are you getting up for training every day?" I was a bit hesitant with my answer, mainly because I didn't want him to freak out or anything.

"Ashe, you know you can tell me." I sighed, knowing he wasn't going to give up because he's so damn stubborn.

"Alright, alright already. I'm getting up every morning at four a.m. to train ok? So stop fussing about it already." I said as I finished the apple and chucked the core into the woods nearby. "Now focus on the team of idiots in there." I gestured to the room behind us. "We're going up against the All Starz and I'm really concerned about Max battling against his mom's team. I know you've been thinking about this too so what's the game plan?" Kai seemed to think about his answer before telling me.

"Well we'll have Tyson start us off, Judy will most likely have Steve start them off because he's the biggest of the them. Ray will go second and if Steve goes first then Michael will be last so Eddie will be in the middle. I'll come in to battle Michael as a surprise to the whole All Starz team since they haven't seen me blade." I smirked at Kai's battle plan.

"Nice. Let's go tell the others so they can prepare themselves."

And we did so, causing Max to seem shocked.

"But why aren't I battling Kai?"

"Because we're going up against your mother's team and you'll be too distracted. So you're not battling." Kai stated simply.

However after much pleading and begging, Kai eventually let Max battle.

"Whatever, just make sure you win."

As Max began to cheer with the others, I sat down on the bed.

"Alright Max, if your battling then give me Draciel so I can give him a quick tune up. Kenny can I borrow Dizzi so I can work with her?" Max handed me Draciel while Kenny nodded with a smile.

So I took Dizzi, Draciel and my tools out onto the balcony and began to run trial versions of my blade designs for Draciel against a simulated program of Michael's blade based on the info that Dizzi had gathered. Because Draciel had a good defense to begin with, I added a lighter but bigger and more durable defense ring. I replaced the attack ring with a smaller one to balance out the weight of the two rings to help with the original weight ring.

"Alright Ashe, if all goes well then Draciel should be able to hold his own against Michael's blade."

"Well only one way to find out. Have them battle, so it's off to the tournament." I picked up the supplies and secured Draciel's bit in the modified blade.

'_Mistress, Draciel thanks you for helping him out.'_ Anivia cooed in my mind.

'Now it's up to Max as to whether or not he can handle battling against his mom's team.' I gathered everything up and went back inside where everyone was just finishing getting ready.

I gave Draciel back to Max and Dizzi back to Kenny and we headed for the bus. I listened to 'Damned and Divine' and 'Colors' on the way which seemed to prove a shorter trip then the day before…but maybe that was just me. We headed for the ring where the All Starz were waiting on the other side.

"Good luck, Tyson." Max cheered as DJ called for the first competitors.

"Alright Beyblade Fans! It's the day of the finals where the Bladebreakers shall go up against the All Starz! First up, is Tyson vs Steve! Bladers take your places!"

Steve went and set up his football launcher on it's kickstand, laces out.

"3…2…1…LET IT RIP!"

The battle was on and Tyson secured an easy win the first round but even he realized that it was all too easy win. The next round proved the point as Steve secured a quick victory by practically over powering Dragoon. So it all came down to the third round. After they launched, Trihorn started attacking Dragoon almost immediately. It was a bit tricky for Dragoon to dodge the power blows.

"Tyson, use the stadium to your advantage and hide!" Ray shouted and for a while that seemed to work…until Trihorn just went and plowed through the miniature buildings.

"Wait a minute…" A thought just occurred to me. "Tyson, let him attack you!"

The team looked at me like I just announced I was going to kill myself.

"Are you crazy, Ashe? Have you finally shot yourself or something?" Tyson shouted.

"Just do it! Trust me!"

"Tyson, listen to her! Dragoon will do the same thing to Trihorn that I did to you the first time we battled in the park!" Kai shouted back and from the look on Tyson's face it took him a while to figure out what Kai was getting at.

"OOOOOOHHHHH YEAH! NOW I REMEMBER! I GOTCHA!...GO DRAGOON!" Dragoon stood his ground as Trihorn began attacking but it didn't seem to do anything which caused Steve to get really pissed.

He and Trihorn tried attacking harder but Dragoon just continued to feed off the energy.

"Dragoon, Phantom Hurricane attack!" Tyson called and Trihorn was knocked out of the ring by a mighty gust of wind.

"And the winner of the first round is Tyson!"

Max, Kenny and Ray ran up and congratulated their teammate while Kai and I just stayed on the bench. Ray prepared to step up to the dish while Max, Tyson and Kenny came back to the bench.

"Next up it's Ray vs Eddie! Will ray pull off the win the Bladebreakers need or will Eddie steal the ball into his own court? BLADERS READY…3…2…1…LET IT RIP!"

The two bladers circled one another a few times before colliding.

"Go Drigger!"

"Hey guy, you might wanna take a look at this." Dizzi had called us over after doing an analysis on Eddie's blade.

"Oh crap, he's using a non-friction blade. Ray better watch out." Kenny warned but his efforts were in vain as Eddie's blade knocked Drigger out of the ring.

The crowd seemed shocked but cheered for Eddie nonetheless. They launched again, this time we got a look at Eddie's artificial bitbeast which happened to be a scorpion. Unfortunately, I could see across the way that Emily was working fast on her laptop with Judy, Steve and Michael next to her.

"Hey no fair! They're sending info to Eddie's blade about Ray's tactics!" I yelled and prepared to go over there and smash the laptop but someone started to restrain me.

I smelled Kai's masculine scent but still continued to thrash in his arms.

"Le' me go Kai! I'm gonna go over there and smash that computer into tiny bits and then I'm going to give that bitch Emily a piece of my mind!"

"No you're not. You're going to stay here with me and you're going to leave them alone. Now sit." He whispered in my ear, sending shivers down my spine.

'Oh god…I hate it when he does that.' I groaned as I stopped struggling and let Kai steer me back to the bench just in time to see Ray get knocked out of the ring.

"And victory of round two goes to Eddie! The score stands at one to one. The winner of round three will determine who the champions are in the American Tournament!"

Michael made his way up to the ring with a smug look on his face that I wanted to just shoot right off his face.

"Max, go out there and kick his baseball lovin' ass!" I growled as I narrowed my eyes at the All Starz gaze from across the way.

"C'mon hottie, you know you want a piece of this!" He called indicating to his body as I stood up in anger.

"Oh I'll give him a piece all right." I hissed as I pulled out my gun and started for the ring again when I was restrained again…this time by Kai and Ray.

"Ashe, come on. Let him go." Ray said as he wrestled to get the gun away from me.

"No! I want him to suffer just like the guys I sent to the hospital yesterday, now let me go so I can beat his skinny ass!" I yelled as I continued to thrash in my captors grip like a cat about to be thrown in water. "LET ME GO!"

By now, Tyson and Max had to help restrain me.

"Ashe, please stop! This isn't you!" Ray called.

"Shut up! You don't know me, you don't know what I'm capable of!" I growled at the nekojin as he somehow managed to get my gun out of my hand while Max had grabbed my launcher.

"No but I do and I'm telling you right now to stop this." Kai ordered and I stopped thrashing to look at him. "Ashe, I might not know exactly everything about you but I defiantly know you aren't the kind of person to just go out and kill someone randomly." Very hesitantly, the guys released their grip on me, one by one until Kai was the only one left still holding me. "You should know by now to keep your emotions under control." He whispered and I knew he was right. "Now if I let you go, will you be able to calm yourself?"

"Yes." I muttered like a little girl.

"Ok…but you're not getting your launcher or your gun back until we're back at the hotel." I turned around to protest but Kai gave me a look that made me shut my mouth…although I think it was because I was about to say how hot the look he was giving me was.

So I pulled out my I-POD and held Anivia in my hand, picturing the Secret Spot in my mind as a cool feeling spread through my body while 'Might Wings', 'Inside the Fire', and 'Our Great Divide' blasted at full volume to take my mind off the battle between Max and Michael. I was set in meditation when I felt a hand on my shoulder that snapped me out of my tranquil trance.

"Max won." Kai said and we walked out to the ring to congratulate Max.

Judy came out and congratulated her son, saying how proud she was and all that. While the mother and son were bonding, Michael approached me.

"Hey babe, listen since your leaving and all soon, how about you and me go off and get to know each other?" he said while slinging an arm around my shouler.

I just sighed heavily.

"Well Michael, I think the first thing you should know about me is this." And without warning, I socked him in the kisser shocking everyone…well except maybe Kai and Ray. "Don't ever try and fuck with me again cause karma's a bitch and next time you'll go home with more than just a bruised jaw. Just ask the 5 guys I sent to the hospital yesterday." I hissed before leaving the teams and headed for the bus.

'Well that felt good. Maybe I should unleash my anger physically on people more often.' I thought as I smirked evilly.

'_Now, now Mistress, you know better than that. It's not right even if it is a bit amusing seeing people run away with their tales between their legs.'_ I laughed at her comment which apparently grabbed the attention of Kai who was right behind me.

"What's so funny?"

"Eh, just somethin' Anivia said to me. So are we heading to Japan?"

"No, NYC but according to Mr Dickinson, we're only staying for a week before heading to the National Championship that's being held in two months…in Russia." I solemnly swallowed the gasp that had gotten caught in my throat.

"Oh ok." I said, like it was not but deal.

But in reality, it was a huge deal.

'We're going home.'

I thought about that concept the entire ride back to the hotel. When we got back up to the room, Kai gave me back my gun and launcher while everyone else prepared for bed, our flight to NYC wasn't until the afternoon.

"Hey Ashe, better make sure you I-POD's charged for the flight tomorrow." Tyson commented as he had a late night snack.

"Shut it Tyson." Kai ordered as Ray smacked him upside the head.

"Did you learn nothing these past two days, you idiot? Don't make Ashe mad. You can't be on the team if your laying in a hospital bed recovering from getting your ass kicked!" Ray warned.

I smirked as I turned around but never the less, I plugged in my I-POD so I could change it while I listened to music. I changed for bed and pulled out one of my books, Eon. I was almost half way through it by the time the lights finally went out and I was able to sleep to 'Kuolema Tekee Taiteilyan'.

Damned And Divine –Tarja Turunen

Colors – Utada Hikaru

Mighty Wings – Cheap Trick

Inside the Fire – Disturbed

Our Great Divide – Tarja Turunen

Kuolema Takee Taiteilyan - Nightwish


	11. A Sea Of Faith

DISCLAIMER: I OWN NOTHING OF BEYBLADE! I ONLY REALLY OWN JUST ASHE HERSELF. HER BITBEAST ANIVIA, ISN'T MINE. SHE WAS FIRST AND FORMOST CREATED AS A CHARACTER TO PLAY IN THE GAME LEAGUE OF LEGENDS BUT SHE'S JUST SO AWESOME BUT AGAIN I DON'T CLAIM HER AS MY OWN! I'M TRYING TO NOT COPY THE DIALOGUE FROM BEYBLADE BUT I'M ALSO TRYING TO MAKE SURE THAT I DON'T MAKE KAI SOUND LIKE AN IDIOT.

**Ok, I'd like to take this quick opportunity to give a special shoutout to ShingingHeart of ThunderClan who has been asking some great questions in her reviews. Unfortunatly, I cannot answer them all because the time isn't right. I promise you all that by the end of G-Revolution, all your questions will be answered and I can't wait for you all to find out what happens. The only question I can really answer is that she just really hates guys who are nothing but playboys and assholes who think they can get away with anything so yeah, Kai knows. I really hate Emily with a loathsome passion and I'm not too fond of Michael either so having Ashe wanting to try and kick their asses is like me wanting to kick them but can't. The first few questions that ShiningHeart asked ****will be answered by the end of this season.**

**'Ashe communicating with Anivia'**

_'Anivia communicating with Ashe'_

'Ashe thinking to herself'

** Promise that what I mentioned is going to happen! So without further adeau, on with the show!**

I woke up for training at four but this time the bed was empty. I saw the light on in the bathroom.

'Ok if I'm real quiet, maybe I can sneak out without Kai catching me.' I changed quickly and was almost to the door when a hand snagged my write. 'Oh…so close' I turned to see Kai standing there with no friggin shirt! 'Good God does he ever wear a shirt?'

"Do you ever wear a shirt?" I whispered jokingly as he smirked back.

"They're too constricting." 'HOLY MOTHER OF GOD!' "So, where are you off to?"

"Uh Kai, we talked about this yesterday. I'm training and since we're going to be on a plane for at least eight or nine hours, I'm putting in as much training as I can before then. Now, go back to bed before I knock you out myself." Kai chuckled a but before releasing my wrist.

"Alright fine, but be back before noon since our flight leaves at two."

"Aye aye, Captain." I said giving him a playful salute before heading out.

* * *

><p>I was able to complete the majority of my training in the woods nearby. So even though I hadn't totally completed my training, I made Kai's given deadline and was back in the hotel by eleven fifty-five. When I walked in he gave me a look that said 'where were you?'<p>

"Hey don't gimme that look. You said to be back before noon and it's eleven fifty-six which is before noon." I said getting technical.

I took a quick shower and packed my bags, which didn't take long since I don't have that much stuff. We made it to the airport and our flight left on time. Kai took the seat near the window so I got the aisle. As soon as the captain said it was ok, I unbuckled my seatbelt and pulled out my I-POD, putting my music on shuffle starting with 'This Is Halloween'. Before I took a nap I heard 'Come Closer', 'You Give Love A Bad Name', and 'Holding Out For A Hero'.

All was peaceful and quiet until Tyson's incessant complaining woke me up half way through the flight.

"Where's the food?" he groaned.

Controlling my anger, I went into the overhead and pulled out some snacks that I had in my carry on.

"I knew these would come in handy." I muttered as I tossed them to Tyson who was happy to receive.

"Sweet! Thanks Ashe!"

Luckily the inflight movie was starting…Pirates of the Caribbean.

"Finally a good movie." I said as I plugged in my headphones into the plane headphone jack.

I gave Kai one of the ear buds so he could listen and watch. Thankfully Tyson had fallen asleep by the end of the movie so I was able to enjoy the rest of the flight in peace.

* * *

><p>The next week went by quite quickly but maybe that was because I was always training my ass off. I didn't see Kai much but it didn't really bother me. So instead of the six of us met Mr Dickinson at the pier where a cruise ship was waiting.<p>

"Alright kids, this ship will take you to the ports of Russia where the World Championships will be held in Moscow. I'll see you there!" He saw us off and we were shown to our rooms.

Thankfully we each got our own rooms so I didn't have to listen to Tyson complain or snore. The rooms were big enough for me to do a good portion of my training without having to leave the room. The ship had i's own weight room, two pools: one for play and one for swimming laps, a dining room, and even a room where kids could have beybattles. While being on this ship I could do my training completely without any restrictions. Once I completed what I could in my room, I put on my black bathing suit with a blue flame design on it, grabbed a towel and headed for the lap pool. There was no one up there which made it even better. My 100 laps were completed in no time and there was still no one up there so I just enjoyed the pool all to myself…or so I thought.

"Goddamn. Do you know how hard it is to find a hottie like you all alone?" I groaned as I turned in the pool to see a guy who appeared to be around eighteen or nineteen standing by the edge of the piil. He would've been kinda cute if he wasn't such an asshole perverted jerk.

"Geeze I can never enjoy myself without someone like you hitting on me." I sighed as I got out of the pool and went for my towel but the guy caught me before I got there.

His arms snagged me around my waist and he pulled me backwards to him.

"Well baby, how about we head back to my room and let me enjoy you." He tried to nuzzle my neck while his hands started to grope my body but instead I slammed my heel into his foot.

He released me to clutch his throbbing foot while I went and grabbed my towel which had my gun and launcher wrapped up inside it.

"Aw come on baby, stop playin hard to get." He tried to grab my shoulder but I grabbed his hand and flipped him over onto his back and stepped on his chest, my gun and launcher to his head.

"Come near me again and I'll put a bullet in your kneecap." I warned before wrapping the towel around myself and heading back to my room.

I had just finished changing when there was a knock on my door.

"It's open." I called as I began brushing my hair.

The door opened to reveal Kai and the others.

"Hey Ashe, enjoying the cruise ship?" Tyson asked as he came in and opened the mini fridge but was disappointed to see that I had just water.

"Well I was enjoying the lap pool until some ass decided to try and hit on me." I noticed Kai tense up slightly but let it slide.

"Wow Ashe, you just can't do anywhere without being hit on by some guy. Sorry about that." Ray apologized which was actually kind of a sweet thing for him to say.

"Well yeah Ray I mean she may be a bit scary at times but she's hot! Am I right?"

That comment earned Tyson a smack upside the head from Kai.

"Ai! What was that for? It was a compliment! C'mon even you've got to admit she's hott, Kai!" that earned him two smacks, one from Kai and the other from Ray. "Ah, guys! Why can't I-" Max cut him off by slapping a hand over Tyson's big mouth as it looked like he was going to get hit again.

"Tyson, shut up!" He hissed while Kenny just laughed nervously.

I pulled my hair into a quick braid and gathered my gun and launcher along with a bottle of water.

"Well boys have fun. I'm off to the weight room."

"Aw come one Ashe, will you lighten up already and just have some fun?"

"Tyson we're heading to the World Championship where all of the top notch teams will be there. The White Tigers, the All Starz and everyone else who's considered the best. We have two months to prepare for it so I'm doing all the training I can in order to be ready for it so if you'll excuse me." I grabbed my I-POD and headed to the weight room which wasn't as occupied as I first thought it would be.

So I went over and started with the dumb-bells doing two-hundred reps for each arm with fifty pounds to 'The Call', 'Crush Crush Crush', 'La Isla Bonita', and 'Paparazzi'. I was setting up a bench press when I saw Max come in and get to work on upper arm curls. He glanced at me and gave me a quick wave before going back to work. I did my two-hundred bench presses with twenty-five pounds on either side to 'Bad Boy', 'Deciever of Fools', 'I Like It', 'I Will Survive', and 'Wishmaster'. I had just finished the reps when there were some kids going on about a big beybattle. I face palmed as I grabbed Max.

"If I know anything, then it's Tyson who's battling. C'mon we'd better make sure he doesn't do anything stupid." Max followed right behind me as we followed a group of kids to the little ring where Tyson was indeed locked in some battle with a guy who had purple hair and wore a white suit.

Kenny, Ray and Kai were already there. Tyson seemed to be struggling so he called out Dragoon.

"Enough of this child's play. Go Griffolion!" And out emerged a pink and purple bitbeast griffin.

However he was bigger than Dragoon was…a lot bigger and he trashed poor Dragoon.

'Ouch…'

'_Yes Mistress. Griffolian defiantly put a hurt on Dragoon.'_

**'Yeah but still…Tyson deserves to get his ass kicked good every now and then to remind him that he's not invincible. I just feel sorry for Dragoon. He's the one who ultimately got to deal with Tyson's obsessive need for battle.'**

The guy collected his blade and proceeded to walk past us.

"The name is Robert and if you wish to battle me again, then I suggest you get stronger."

And he left the room without another word to anyone.

"Wow…if he's going to be in the World Championship I don't think we have a chance against a mega bitbeast." Tyson said as he picked up Dragoon.

"And you wonder why I'm always training Tyson. That reason just trounced you. There's going to be others like him or even stronger at the Tournament." I explained as I took a drink from the waterbottle.

"Grrr. I don't care I want a rematch!" he shouted furiously.

"Whatever I'm going to get some fresh food before it's all gone. Ta!" I called as I headed for the dining hall.

I grabbed some carry out containers and put some food in them like Chicken Parmesan, Meatloaf and veggies, and Fried Chicken with mashed potatoes and gravy. I took all that back to my room and put the chicken parm and fried chicken in the mini fridge. Sitting down on the bed, I flipped on the mini tv that was beside the bed. I searched through the channels until I found something to watch. 'Stay Alive'.

"Now this is a good movie."

I ate as I watched all the bloody scenes which didn't bother me in the slightest. I loved horror movies even if they didn't scare me. After finishing my meal, I pulled out my gun and took it apart so I could clean it. As I began cleaning the barrel, there was knock on my door.

"It's open." I called out and the door opened to reveal Kai.

"Hey, what's up?" I asked as I rinsed out the cleaning cloth.

"Tyson's being a dense bonehead but what else is new." He commented as he sat down on the bed, being wary of the gun parts.

"So did you eat? I've got two other meals in the fridge." I said as I tossed him a water bottle but Kai shook his head.

"No thanks I ate already. But what you're watching, looks interesting." He said as he began watching the movie.

"Yeah it's one of my favorites. It's called 'Stay Alive'." I said as I sat down and started to reassemble the gun.

"So...am I going to have to start following you around to make sure guys aren't always hitting on you?" he joked.

"Ha ha very funny." I replied sarcastically. "And no. I'm a big girl, I can handle myself. You of all people should know that." I said as I placed the ammo clip in and aimed to make sure everything was aligned.

"Yeah I know but it seems that lately, guys have been coming onto you like bee's are attracted to flowers. I just don't like it. I was actually going to punch Michael a week ago but you beat me to it." I just shrugged my shoulders.

"Well…next time be quicker." I replied as I lay down on my side to watch the movie.

Kai joined me, propping himself up on his elbow. As the two of us watched the movie I could feel my heart start to beat really fast.

'Please don't let him hear it.' I prayed as I felt the pillows and mattress shift beneath me.

Slowly I turned around to see that Kai had fallen asleep.

'Aw…..' I smacked myself mentally and changed for bed.

Kai remained in the same position as I crawled beneath the covers and shut the light and tv off, but this time I fell asleep without music. Instead I fell asleep to the sound of Kai's steady breathing.

This Is Halloween – The Nightmare Before Christmas

Come Closer – Delain

You Give Love A Bad Name – Bon Jovi

Holding Out For A Hero – Shrek 2

The Call – The Backstreet Boys

Crush, Crush, Crush – Paramore

La Isla Bonita – Madonna

Bad Boy – Cascada

Deceiver of Fools – Within Temptation

I Like It – Enrique Iglesias

I Will Survive – Stephanie Bentley

Wishmaster - Nightwish


	12. Silent Is The Dark

DISCLAIMER: I OWN NOTHING OF BEYBLADE! I ONLY REALLY OWN JUST ASHE HERSELF. HER BITBEAST ANIVIA, ISN'T MINE. SHE WAS FIRST AND FORMOST CREATED AS A CHARACTER TO PLAY IN THE GAME LEAGUE OF LEGENDS BUT SHE'S JUST SO AWESOME BUT AGAIN I DON'T CLAIM HER AS MY OWN! I'M TRYING TO NOT COPY THE DIALOGUE FROM BEYBLADE BUT I'M ALSO TRYING TO MAKE SURE THAT I DON'T MAKE KAI SOUND LIKE AN IDIOT.

_I'm feeling incredibly generous so I'm posting another chapter. Plus my last one left off with a big enough cliff hanger that I feel that those who are a fan of this story would be writing to me asking why I left it so. _

_SO HERE YA GO MY FRIENDS!_

When I woke up for training I felt something heavy across my waist. I looked down to see it was Kai's arm. He had me in such a tight grip, I couldn't get out of it to train.

**'Anivia, help me! Get Dranzer to wake Kai up or something!'**

_'I'm sorry Mistress, but there's nothing I can do. You'll just have to wait for Master Kai to either wake up or shift positions. Besides, you have to admit that you're enjoying this.'_

**'Well, yeah I guess...BUT THAT'S NOT THE POINT!'**

But no matter what I thought it didn't help my situation any. So I just shut my eyes and slept some more until my door burst open a few hours later.

"What the hell?" I yelled, sitting up with my gun poised ready to fire with Kia who had also woken up.

"Ashe, have you seen Kai? He wasn't-...Oh oops, did I interrupt something?" Tyson asked as the others came in behind him.

"Tyson, you dimwitted demented dumbass! You don't just barge into someone's room without knocking! What the hell is wrong with you?" I yelled lowering my gun.

"Well last night after you left, we planned to meet on the upper deck at eight-thirty to look for that guy, Robert." I looked at the clock to see that it was almost nine. "And when Kai didn't show up we went looking for him but couldn't find him anywhere, so we thought you might know." Tyson explained while rubbing the back of his neck in embarrassment.

"That still doesn't give you the right to just barge in here without knocking. What if I had been changing?" The guys immediately blushed.

"That'd be hott!" Tyson exclaimed as Ray gave him a smack upside the head.

"Tyson, I can personally promise you that if you ever walk in on me changing, the world will be rid of one Tyson Granger." I threatened darkly causing the cap-lover to cower behind Ray. "Kai and I fell asleep while watching a movie last night. Now out so I can change."

The guys left and Kai started to leave too but I pulled him back down on the bed as Ray shut the door behind him. Once the door shut, I flopped back down on the bed with an aggravated sigh.

"I swear to God, I'm going to have to start kicking Tyson's ass on a daily basis just to keep him from doing stupid shit like he just pulled."

"Well we both know that I was the one who fell asleep during the movie. You changed for bed and then fell asleep. Why didn't you wake me up?" Kai asked as he put on his arm gauntlets he took off the night before.

"Because I didn't care that you fell asleep. We're always sharing a bed so it doesn't bother me." I answered as I gathered my clothes and headed into the bathroom to change.

When I came out, Kai was gone. I went out onto the upper deck where I saw the ship had docked in what looked like London, since I saw Big Ben. The guys were looking over the side at the view.

"Hey look, there he is!" Tyson shouted as he pointed out.

I stood with them to see Robert heading into the city.

"C'mon, after him!" We had no choice but to grab our bags and follow Tyson off the ship.

"Uh excuse me sir, but how long is the ship going to sat on the dock?" Kenny asked a man who was sweeping the lower deck.

"Oh the ship's not planning to leave for six hours." The man replied as he gave us a smile so we headed down the ramp and onto dry land.

But before we could even get a chance to enter the city, we were stopped by a very annoying, very all to familiar voice.

"Hey babe, wait up!"

Immediately, all the guys stopped and turned fast while I sighed heavily and took my time turning around.

"Oh god." It was the guy who tried to get me to go back to his room yesterday.

"Baby, you goin' somewhere?" He said as he approached me, completely ignoring the strange looks the guys were giving him.

"Yeah. I'm off to find someone who hasn't tried to get in my pants so get lost or do I have to remind you of our confrontation from yesterday." As I said that, I began fingering my holster.

"Oh come on love, don't be like that. Besides you playing hard to get just makes me want you even more." He said as he reached out for me but before I could even react, Kai had slugged him so hard in the face he tumbled off the dock and into the water.

I smiled while the others looked freaked as Kai gave me a smirk.

"You told me to be quicker next time." I only laughed and we continued into London.

We explored the big city in search of Robert but to no avail. We finally gave up and headed back to the dock only to find the ship gone.

"Where the hell is the ship?" Tyson yelled as he began frantically looking around.

One of the guys on the dock just came up to us casually.

"Oh yeah, that ship left over an hour ago."

"Look I'm sure if we call Mr Dickinson, he can send the ship back to us or something. Let's find the London BBA HQ." Ray suggested.

So we headed for the HQ where we hoped we'd get in contact with Mr Dickinson, sadly, he was unavailable. But the receptionist did put us up in a room since we were bladers so that was nice. I sat on a bed and plugged in my I-POD to listen to 'Because of You', 'Dark Chest of Wonders', and 'Die Alive' while finishing 'Eon' when ther was a knock at the door. Kenny answered and came back with a package. Tyson opened it to reveal a videotape so he popped it into the VCR. A man's face popped up and Tyson recognized him almost immediately.

"Dad?"

The man greeted Tyson and started talking about sacred bitbeasts and how they were a symbol of great power and how they've been around for a long time. I already knew this stuff because Anivia knows it and she told me everything, so I just plugged my headphones back in and continued to listen to 'Kidnap Mr Sandy Claws' and 'Crazy Train' before Tyson suggested we go out and look for a way to Russia. For once I had to agree with him so we headed out when we were confronted by someone in a dark cloak. He started to freak Tyson out so the two pulled out their blades. But as soon as Tyson launched, the guy snatched Dragoon!

"After him!" He followed him down a dark ally. I drew my gun just in case as we cautiously rounded a corner to see the man standing over a spinning Dragoon.

"I call upon the source of my power and rebirth in this world – the Dark Blade!"

The wind picked up and the sky darkened as a mummy bitbeast emerged from the mysterious guys' blade and began smashing Dragoon head on.

"Hang on, Tyson!" Max and Ray launched their blades in an effort to help.

"Attack, Driger!"

"Go, Draciel!"

The two blades rushed foreward to aid their friend but the mummy caught them in his wrappings.

"Hey do you think if we unraveled him, we'd find the High Priest Imhotep?" I asked Kai as we prepared to launch.

"Ashe, let me launch first."

"No Kai, me first. I have a plan. Go, Anivia!" **'Let's see how far this walking bandaid can go. Lead him around'.**

Anivia moved up and down the allyway's trashcans, the fire escape and many other twists and turns.

"That's right, follow the leader." I muttered as the mummy's wrappings became tighter.

"What?" The mystery guy seemed to have caught onto my plan but it was a bit too late.

The bandages were wrapped tight around everything, tangling it and holding them in place.

"Now Kai!"

"Right, go Dranzer! Fire Arrow!" Red flames comsumed the blade which burned away the bandages, freeing Driger and Draciel and sending Dragoon back to Tyson.

"You cannot hide forever for we control the spirits of evil, come Sarcophalon." The man ordered and the mummy retreated back to the blade and into his owners hand who then vanished into the shadows.

Anivia came back to me as Dranzer went back to Kai. Kenny was still a bit shakey about what just happened.

"Soooooo…now what do we do?" There was only one solution.

"We continue to travel by land."

Kai, Ray and Max seemed to agree with me and Tyson didn't seem to care as long as he got the chance to battle Robert again.

"So it's settled, we'll travel by land from this point on. World Championships, here we come!" Tyson seemed just a little over enthusiastic about how we were traveling.

"Whatever, let's just head back to the hotel, I missed a whole day of training because of this little detour. And if we're taveling by land, my training's going to be even more restricted." I growled as I turned and headed out of the alley with Kai beside me.

We went back to the hotel in silence but that broke when Tyson burst through the room and immediately began ordering room service.

"Do not order a lot of food, Tyson." I warned. "We're only spending the night here." Tyson huffed and rolled his eyes but he knew better than to piss me off…well even more so now seeing as I was already pissed by being led on a wild goose chase.

The food arrived and the rest of the night was uneventful. We headed down to the train station the next morning and found one that was going to be heading under the English Channel so we'd be going towards Russia thankfully.

"Alright let's go!" Tyson was way too cheerful this morning and it was starting to give me a headache.

We found a boxcar that was empty so we settled there as the train started moving.

"Sweer, we could have a party in here!" Tyson started bouncing in his seat as a movie came on the flatscreen. "Alright movie time! Anybody bring popcorn?" If my head didn't hurt so much, I would've face palmed.

"Try and get some rest, Ashe. It might help your head some. The next town we come to, we'll get you some asprin."

Knowing Kai was right, I pulled my seat back and tried to take a nap but the movement of the train didn't help the situation. So I tried to watch the poorly made black and white horror movie in hopes that would help but it didn't.

"I'm going to see if I can find a stewderess who has some asprin." I said, standing up.

Kai nodded and I headed out the back door of the car into another but there was no one there. I passed the bathrooms and still didn't see a living soul.

"Great I think we hitched a ride on the Haunted Express." I grumbled as the train suddenly came to a sharp stop.

"What the hell?" I grabbed the back of a seat for stability when my eyes caught movement outside.

I pulled out my gun and found an exit out of the train and into the tunnel.

'_Caution Mistress, for I sense that we are not alone.'_

Knowing Anivia was right, I cocked the gun and switched the safety, ready to fire at any second. Multiple sets of footsteps came towards me from all directions and I couldn't focus as my head started to pound even harder. Suddenly, a black figure in a cloak appeared in front of me. I fired three shots before all I could see was black after a pain to my neck.

NORMAL POV

After the train stopped in the middle of the tunnel, the guys started to get a little suspicious. Especially when Ray came back from the bathroom,.

"Uh guys, there's no one else on the train." Kai immediately stood up.

"Ray go check the captain's room, I'll go to the navigation compartment." He ordered and the two rushed off without a word to anyone.

Just as Ray said, there was no one else on the train.

'Where'd Ashe go?'

Kai thought as he headed back to the others.

"Well whoever was driving the train's gone now." Ray said as he came back.

"And there's no one in the navigation room either. Did Ashe come back yet?" The others shook their heads.

"No we haven't seen her since-." Tyson was cut off by the sound of three gunshots.

"ASHE!" They realized and found a way outside the train and headed in the direction the sounds came from.

"Ashe! Where are you?" Ray called out but the only answer they received was Tyson tripping.

"Ow…hey what the hell- OH GOD!" Tyson stood up and help the object he tripped over.

"It's Ashe's gun!" Max realized and worry spread across Kai's face but it went unnoticed by the others.

Tyson held the gun out for Kai, fearing what might happen to him if he held it and Ashe found out.

"Here you hold onto it." Kai said nothing as he placed the gun in his pocket.

Suddenly, they heard an echoing cackle. They turned and saw three cloaked figures just like the man they encountered the day before.

"Who are you?" Tyson asked as they all fingered their blades.

"We are…the Dark Bladers." Kenny stood crouched behind them all, shaking while clutching Dizzi.

"Where's Ashe?" Kai demanded loudly.

"Don't worry about your little friend. She's safe and sound…for now." One of them said as a fourth cloaked figure appeared, carrying an unconscious, limp Ashe in his arms.

He wrists and ankles were bound and her mouth gagged.

"YOU BASTARDS! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO HER?" Kai yelled which shocked the others since they never really heard Kai yell like that before…only at Tyson when he accidentally caused Ashe to burn her hand.

"She's just unconscious is all. We haven't done anything to her…yet." Kai clenched his fists so hard, his knuckled turned white.

"Let her go! NOW!"

"Sorry but we can't do that." Kai pulled out Dranzer and placed him in the launcher.

"Then, we'll battle for her freedom." The others readied their blades for battle as well.

The man placed Ashe on the ground beside the train and readied their own blades. The cloaks came off to reveal four creepy looking guys, they looked almost like the monsters from a horror movie. The battle comensed and the bitbeasts of the Dark Bladers revealed themselves to be copies of their masters. A vampire, a werewolf, Frankenstein, and of course the mummy.

"Dizzi, can you help us any?" Kenny asked as he opened her up.

"Aaahhh! Chief warn me the next time you're going to show me scary bitbeasts." She complained.

"Dizzi, focus. Ashe is in trouble and the guys need our help!

"Alright, well let's see…since the bitbeasts are like horror movie monsters then can't you beat them the same way the hero's do in the movies?" Kenny's face brightened at her idea.

"Dizzi, you're a genius!"

"I do what I can." She responded.

Apparently the others caught wind of her idea because Tyson and Max combined their forces to create light which vanquished the vampire bitbeast. Ray called back Drigger and attached a silver dollar to his blade before launching again this time getting rid of the werewolf bitbeast. Before Kai could do anything to the mummy or Frankenstein, the sound of an ambulance and it's flashing lights caused them to retreat.

"This isn't over!" They called as they disappeared into the darkness of the tunnels.

As soon as Dranzer retreated back to Kai, he immediately bolted for Ashe who was still unconscious. He took off the gag, unbound her wrists and then her ankles. He checked her over for any other injuries but saw none. As the others came over with the paramedics, he picked her up in his arms bridal style.

"Hey Kai, is she alright?" Max asked as the EMT's tried to take her from his arms but he wouldn't release his grip.

"She's fine, now back off." He growled so the EMT's backed away as the gang piled into the back of the ambulance.

Kai laid Ashe so her head was in his lap and she stayed that way until she woke up.

ASHE'S POV

I felt like hell as I opened my eyes after being knocked out by…whoever the hell it was.

"What the hell happened?" I groaned as I shifted to find myself laying in Kai's lap in what looked like an ambulance. "Oh god, we're not going to the hospital, right?" I asked as I held my hand to my eyes to shield them from the bright overhead lights.

"No, but they came looking for us when the train station contacted the police when they realized the train we were on wasn't scheldueled to leave when it did. And when no one answered the call from the station, they panicked. What about you, are you alright? What happened?" Kai asked me as I gazed into his luscious eyes, my heart pounding as hard as my head.

"Well, I was about to head back to you guys after I explored and found no one, when the train stopped. I saw movement outside and went to check it out. But before I knew it. I was surrounded and something hit the back of my neck and that's the last thing I remember before waking up here."

The others explained to me what happened while I was knocked out…which just sounded really weird. We arrived back in London where the station manager promised us a real train ride to Paris in the morning. After finally locating some asprin, we checked back into the BBA London HQ for the night. As soon as we got up to the room, I immediately claimed my side of the bed.

"Ashe, are you sure your ok?" Kai asked as he sat down beside me.

"Yeah I'm fine, Kai. Really, just a little tired." I said as I took off my coat, gloves, boots, and gun belt before flopping back down on the bed while pulling out my I-POD. "Just try to keep the noise down to a minimum." I yawned as I shut my eyes and fell into a dreamworld to 'Can You Feel The Love Tonight?'.

**So we had some slight Kai/Ashe fluff and don't worry. More is to come. Some of the best fluff parts will begin happening in chapter 15!**

Because of You – Kelly Clarkson

Dark Chest of Wonders – Nightwish

Die Alive – Tarja Turunen

Kidnap Mr Sandy Claws – Nightmare Before Christmas

Crazy Train – Ozzy Osborne

Can You Feel The Love Tonight? – The Lion King


	13. Carpe Diem Seize The Day

DISCLAIMER: I OWN NOTHING OF BEYBLADE! I ONLY REALLY OWN JUST ASHE HERSELF. HER BITBEAST ANIVIA, ISN'T MINE. SHE WAS FIRST AND FORMOST CREATED AS A CHARACTER TO PLAY IN THE GAME LEAGUE OF LEGENDS BUT SHE'S JUST SO AWESOME BUT AGAIN I DON'T CLAIM HER AS MY OWN! I'M TRYING TO NOT COPY THE DIALOGUE FROM BEYBLADE BUT I'M ALSO TRYING TO MAKE SURE THAT I DON'T MAKE KAI SOUND LIKE AN IDIOT.

When I opened my eyes again, it was four a.m. I started to get out of bed to prepare myself for training when I felt a hand snag itself around my waist.

"You're not going anywhere today." Kai murmered with sleepy eyes.

"Kai, I have to train." I whispered back while praying that he couldn't see the red that was creeping across my face, nor feel my heart beat that was throbbing rapidly.

"No, you're not training today now lay back down or I'll strap you down myself." My eyes went wide as dinner plates and my breath quickened.

**'Oh…oh god, Anivia what do I do?'**

'_Relax Mistress. Just lay back down beside Master Kai and go back to sleep.'_

I took a deep breath before answering.

"Alright Kai." His grip loosened as I laid back beneath the covers.

I lay on my side, facing Kai who removed his arm while my heart panged at the loss of his touch.

"Why can't I train, Kai? You've never stopped me from training before, so why now?"

"Because you've never been knocked out and held hostage before. You need a break, now go back to sleep." He murmered as he shut his eyes.

'_Awww…He cares for you, Mistress. Why don't' you just tell him how you feel?'_

**'Because Anivia, I don't know how I feel and I'm afraid to feel because I've never felt this way before. Besides, Kai and I have been best friends for years and we will only be friends. You know how I was raised and having feelings for Kai was not on the learning agenda!'**

When Anivia didn't say anything I decided it was time to fall back asleep. The moonlight from the sliding doors streamed through and cascaded along Kai's sleeping form.

'He's so handsome…oh god! Grandmama I wish you were here…I need your help!' I called in my mind but I knew that I wasn't going to get my answer.

Sadley, I closed my eyes and fell back to sleep, Kai's handsome face the last thing in my mind. I was shaken awake a few hours later, this time…by Ray.

"Ashe, you gotta get up. We've got to catch the train to Paris." He sat up and prepared to take a quick shower when Max came out

We made it to the train station where there was actually a lot of people on it this time. I read 'Vampire Kisses' the whole way there while listening to 'A Moment Like this', 'My Last Breath', 'Bad Reputation', 'Beauty of the Beast', 'At The Opera Tonight', 'This Is Love', and a random assortment of 'Foamy mp3's'. I finished the third 'Vampire Kisses' by the time we pulled into the station of Paris. We grabbed our luggage and for some reason I was too distracted to realize that Kai and I had been separated from the others. But it didn't bother me any.

'_Of course it doesn't bother you, Mistress, because you know you enjoy your alone time with Master Kai.'_

**'Stop it Anivia. I know your just trying to help but all it's doing is making me even more confused than I already am! I'm going absolutely crazy here about something that I don't even think I should be going crazy over. These feelings are futile in the long run because all that's going to happen in the end is sorrow and death. That's how it always is and always will be. I want these damn feeling's to go away and never return because I have more important things to worry about. Like the fact that I missed training for the past three days or that I was so easily knocked out yesterday or that we have less than two months to prepare for the World Championships. Having any type of feelings for Kai besides friendship should be the extreamly last thing on my mind but it's not. DAMN IT!'**

I was yelling so hard at myself that I found myself separated from Kai so I was standing in the middle of Paris with no way of knowing where the others were. So I decided to explore a bit, something to take my mind off everything else. I found this beautiful garden that seemed closed off to the public, which made it even more beautiful. I looked around to make sure no one was looking before I scaled the gate and hopped the fence. I found an absolutely georgeous spot in the corner of the garden. A sculpted fountain of mermaids sitting on the rocks with musical instruments sat with lilies of the valley planted along the edge with lilac bushes on either side. The Eiffle Tower sat behind them in the distance, completeing the perfect image. I knelt down in front of the fountain and pulled out my wooden flute from my bag. Placing it to my lips I played the melody of 'My Immortal'. As the song came to an end, I took a deep breath, taking in the floral aroma around me.

"So peaceful." I whispered and as I was taking in the tranquility, there was an explosive sound coming from the top of the Eiffel Tower.

Grabbing my bag, I hopped the fence closest to me to spot Kai running towards the tower as well.

"Kai!" I called out as I dropped down from the fence.

He turned to me as I ran over to him.

"I saw the explosion from the garden and I have a huge feeling that Tyson's a part of it in some way." I said as we headed for the elevator.

"Yeah, I had similar thoughts."

When the elevator reached the top of the tower, we stepped around the corner to see Tyson engaged in a battle with one of the Dark Bladers...and he was losing badly. Kai smirked and loaded Dranzer, launching him at the Dark Bladers' blade.

"Seems you've been doing some modifications of your own." I complimented as he ordered Dranzer to attack.

"Finish him, Dranzer!" Kai ordered which won him the battle quickly.

As the others cheered in victory, we were greeted by some kid with bright green hair.

"That was awesome. You guys are pretty strong."

"Who are you?" Tyson asked.

"My name's Oliver and I'm a blader too. You guys are good...Well, I'll see ya." He gave us a small wave before dissapearing into the elevator.

"Well that was...interesting...so now what?" Tyson asked as he looked over the edge of the tower into the city.

"Well, we find out who that Oliver kid is and we battle him. Simple as that." Ray said while I just shrugged my shoulders.

"Whatever, as long as I can keep training, I don't give a damn what we do so long as we are able to get to Russia in time for the tournament."

Kai grunted beside me as the others agreed, deciding to stare out into the city. I was more focused on listening to 'Lucifer's Angel' and 'Predestined Life'.

"Hey, Ashe! Earth to Ashe are you still with us?" Tyson waved his hand in front of my face to try and get a reaction but all it really got him was a smack upside the head by Kai.

"Leave her alone, you bonehead. Let's go find a hotel to stay in unless you feel like sleeping outside tonight."

"Actually, I found this nice closed off garden where I can sleep. It's quiet, peaceful, tranquil and it's close by. So I'm off to the garden, see ya!" I headed into the elevator and shut the doors before the guys could get on.

I ran to the garden and hopped the fence again without anybody noticing. But I headed to a different part of the garden this time. A spot that had more shade and shadows to it. A few willow trees had grown close together, providing a little mini shelter covered completely by their leaves and branches.

'It's perfect.' I thought as I sat down and pulled out 'Beautiful Creatures.' I put my I-POD on it's speakers on low volume so as not to draw any attention to myself in case someone was passing by. I read as much as I could with the daylight that I had left. When it got too difficult for me to keep reading, I sat up against a willow trunk with my bag beside me. Putting my I-POD away but keeping my gun close, I relaxed myself.

_'Mistress, why did you not go with the others to find a hotel?'_

**'Because I need just one night away from sharing a bed with Kai. I need one night where I can relax and think on my own without him clouding my thoughts. Besides I haven't had a night to myself since before we went to America for the tournament. I need this, Anivia, and if Dranzer is bothering you then tell him I'm fine and I'll see them all tomorrow. I just need some time to myself.' **I pleaded in my head.

She seemed to understand because she didn't say another word about it.

_'You're like _her_, you know. She was a determined young woman, too.'_

My eyes snapped open as I realized who she was talking about.

**'What else can you tell me about her? I miss her so much.'**

_'It's hard to say because I wasn't given to her until she was an adult with children of her own. In a few years I could tell you more about her but right now, you're still a fourteen year old girl, a young lady. But she loved you very much and it was her love for you and the things I saw in you that made me choose you as my next Mistress. And when I told her that years ago she said, '_I wouldn't have it any other way. She shall accomplish great and wonderful things with you at her side. She shall find love, happiness, and friendship.' _You see, Mistress? I'm not the only one who wanted you to be happy. And I know for a fact that if she were standing right here with you, she'd say the exact same things again. But for now I think it's time for you to close your eyes and get some rest.'_

A cooling sensation covered my body from head to toe as I slowly drifted off into a soothing, dreamless sleep.

I woke up at four a.m. as usual and did the majority of my training beneath the shelter of the willow trees. Then, I decided to search for the others. They couldn't have gone far for two reasons. A-They needed to find a hotel and B- They wanted to find Oliver.

I explored the merchant streets when I came across a magazine stand that had Oliver's picture on the front, wearing a chef's hat and holding a tray of muffins. But the magazine was in French and I was very rusty. So I asked the man who ran the stand.

"Excuse me, sir, but can you tell me about the boy on the cover of this magazine?"

"Oh! 'Dis boy is Europe's best pastry chef. His family owns some of 'ze 'vorlds greatest reaturants. Not to mention 'ze fact 'zat he's France's champion Beyblader."

"Merci, mousiuor. Au vouir." I answered back.

My French may be rusty but I know how to say a proper thank you. I gave the man a small wave which he returned with a smile and a wave of his own and I was on my way again. I found Ray and Max looking at a map but even I could see it was upside-down.

"Uh guys, you're looking at the map wrong." I said as I approached them.

They both looked up from the map and gave me a smile.

"Hey, Ashe. Can you help us? We've been trying to find the Botanical Gardens but, we keep getting lost." Ray admitted sheepishly as he scratched the back of his head in embarassment.

"Yeah, it's the garden across the way from the Effel Tower. I spent the night there last night, why?" I asked as I flipped the map around for them.

"Well this morning we split up so we could find information about Oliver. So far, the only clue we have is that he's always seen around the Botanical Gardens." Max answered as I led them to the garden.

"Well I found a magazine stand with Oliver on the cover. Apparently he's a rich kid who has a passion for baking and blading. He's the French Champion...or so I was told."

When we arrived at the gardens, the gates were open.

"Huh...that's weird." I said as we walked through.

"What do you mean, Ashe?" Ray asked as we passed the mermaid fountain.

"The gates were closed and locked yesterday so I had to scale the fence...twice. They're either privatly owned by someone or they're only open to the public on certain days."

Before the two boys could ask me about anything else, we heard the familiar sound of blades clashing and the roar of a bitbeast.

"Tyson!" We said simultainously and ran over to where the sound came from to indeed see Tyson locked in a battle with Oliver while Kenny stood to the side.

Dragoon kept colliding with a big pink/purple colored unicorn, not as big as Griffolion but a bit bigger than Dragoon.

"Go Unicolyon!"

'Wow, how origional.' I sighed in my head as I heard footsteps approach from behind. I turned only slightly to see Kai coming up behind me. He didn't say anything as we continued to watch Tyson battle where in the end, he won.

"Thaty was a great battle. I can't remember the last time I had such fun." Oliver and Tyson shook hands and then he talked about this guy in Italy who was the champion there named Enrique. "But you might wanna keep your lady friend away from him...he likes to womanize." He added while giving me an apologetic smile.

"Actually, Enrique might want to keep his distance or else Ashe will kick his ass." Max added with a chuckle.

Oliver laughed before continuing.

"I'll keep that in mind. In the meantime, I'll call Enrique and tell him you're coming."

He then preceeded to treat us all to a nice dinner at one of his family's resturants where he cooked the food. I thought Tyson was going to die of joy and aske Oliver to marry him. After dinner, we checked back into the hotel the boy's stayed in last night and I went with them this time resulting in us each getting our own bed. Kai didn't question me about me sleeping in a garden which surprised me a bit, but I didn't let it bother me. I just plugged in my I-POD, crawled beneath the covers and fell asleep peacefully to 'There You'll Be'.

I Moment Like This- Kelly Clarkson

My Last Breath- Evanescence

Bad Reputation- Joan Jett

Beauty Of The Beast - Nightwish

At The Opera Tonight - Repo The Genetic Opera

This Is Love - Utada Hikaru

Foamy mp3's - Foamy the Squirrel

My Immortal - Evanescence

Lucifer's Angel - The Rasmus

Predestined Life - Delain

There You'll Be - Faith Hill


	14. Sun Within The Rain

DISCLAIMER: I OWN NOTHING OF BEYBLADE! I ONLY REALLY OWN JUST ASHE HERSELF. HER BITBEAST ANIVIA, ISN'T MINE. SHE WAS FIRST AND FORMOST CREATED AS A CHARACTER TO PLAY IN THE GAME LEAGUE OF LEGENDS BUT SHE'S JUST SO AWESOME BUT AGAIN I DON'T CLAIM HER AS MY OWN! I'M TRYING TO NOT COPY THE DIALOGUE FROM BEYBLADE BUT I'M ALSO TRYING TO MAKE SURE THAT I DON'T MAKE KAI SOUND LIKE AN IDIOT.

We all awoke the next morning and we were able to hitch a ride with a man in a truck. In exchange for the ride, we just had to help unload his produce from the back. Surprisingly, the trip was shorter than I expected it to be which was good because the battery in my I-POD died three quarters of the way there. When we arrived in Italy, Kenny grabbed a map from a nearby tourist stand.

"Let's see...if we're here...then Enrique's house is...ah ha, here."

So we grabbed our stuff once our job was done and followed Kenny until he stopped in front of a mansion's gates.

"Uh, Kenny are you sure this is the right place?" Tyson asked as he tried looking through the bars of the gate.

"Yeah, that's what the map said." Tyson's face perked right up.

"Alright! So make with the dingy dongy already!"

"The verbal comprehension of the bonehead never ceases to amaze me." I muttered to Kai as we were approached by a dark blonde.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you." He said.

"And who are you?" Kenny asked, but before the kid even had a chance to answer we were interrupted by a gruff voice.

"Hold it right there." A well dressed man, possibly the mansion's butler, stepped from behind the gates which opened for him. "Come now, young Master. It's time for your mathematics lession." The butler grabbed the kid by the collar of his shirt and steered him towards the house.

"Now who the hell was that kid?" Tyson asked, again to no one in particular, but the butler turned around to answer.

"That's the young Master Enrique."

Before anybody could respond back, there was shouting as the kid, Enrique, got away from the servants and jumped the fence, heading into town.

"Well I guess we go after him," Tyson said as we (reluctantly) followed the knucklehead into town.

We spent almost the entire day searching for the Italian Beyblade Champion. It wasn't until almost sunset that we ran into him...and like Oliver warned us, he had two girls at his side clingling to him like suds on a sponge.

"Come on Enrique Poo, take us shopping like you promised!" I gagged loudly.

"Oh...yuck! Tyson, hurry up and do what you have to do, so we can move on." I groaned.

Enrique dropped his arms from around the girls shoulders at the sound of my voice. He approached me and grasped my hand, bowing to it. I could hear the guys backing away from us from the corner of my eye.

"What is a beautiful princess like you doing with these guys?" He asked as he kissed the top of my hand.

Before anyone could react, I slapped Enrique across the face and pulled out my gun, pointing it at him while the two gold diggers screamed.

"NO! ENRIQUE POO!" They clung to each other and started shreiking so I pulled out my launcher and aimed it at them.

"The next shriek that comes out of your mouths will be the last sound you make." I growled lowly.

They sealed their mouths shut but continued to shake uncontrollably.

"Ashe, will you put the guns away already?" Tyson asked.

I turned and gave him such a cold glare, he cowered behind Ray and Max.

"Whatever, just do what you need to do." I stated as I holstered the two and turned my back on the group.

"Uh right...Enrique I challenge you to a beybattle!"

"A beybattle, seriously? Hm...alright. We'll have our battle tomorrow at the stadium on the corner of Venora and Axel at high noon. Let's go girls." I waited until they were gone before I turned around.

"Can we go now?" I asked as Kenny pulled out a map.

"Well, we'll probably want to stay at a hotel that's close to the stadium so...if the corner of Venora and Axel is here, then the closest hotel is...here. Ceaser's Throne."

So we grabbed our luggage and headed to the hotel that looked like a replica of a temple from Ancient Rome. We checked in and got a room with a hot tub in it.

"AWESOME! PARTY IN THE HOTTUB!" Tyson, Max, and Kenny immediatly changed into their suits when the bathroom was free.

I just sat on my bed, changed into a tank top and shorts when the bathroom was free, pulled out my I-POD, plugging it in to charge, and 'The Historian'. Kai sat beside me with arms crossed and eyes shut while Ray decided to join the Hottub Party.

"C'mon Kai, there's plenty of room and the water's great!" Max giggled as he dunked Kenny before Tyson got him.

"Hn", was Kai's only reply.

I was able to drown out the laughter and plashing water with 'Whisper', 'The State of Massachusetts', 'End of All Hope', 'Addicted To You', and 'Love Is A Battlefield'. As it got darker, Tyson ordered room service which was nice. I didn't say a word to anyone, not even Kai, for the rest of the night. I ate my food in peace and kept my I-POD on in my ears making sure it was still plugged in before I crawled under the covers to fall asleep. The bed shifted as I felt Kai follow suit. The lights went out and darkness consumed my mind to 'Love Will Find A Way'.

* * *

><p>I woke for training the same time as always and this time, Kai wasn't awake to stop me. I slipped out of the room after changing with no disturbances. I upped my training a bit because of what I has missed within the past week. My body didn't seem to mind me upping the training becuase after I was finished I wasn't sore. A bit winded maybe but not on the verge of passing out as many normal people woud do. I headed back up to the room aroudn ten thirty to see everyone up and about. Tyson and Max were back in the hottub, Ray was watching 'Interview With A Vampire' in Italian, Kennuy was working with Dizzi and Kai seemed to be in the shower.<p>

"Hey Ashe, you're back later than ususal...did you meet someone?" Tyson grinned while I placed my stuff down and took a water bottle from the mini fridge for a drink.

"Shut it, Tyson." I hissed as I sat down.

"Aw whats the matter, you scared to tell us where you really were?" Max climbed out of the hottub and headed over to where Ray and Kenny were standing cause they all seemed to sense my rising anger.

"I suggest you lock that big trap of yours shut and melt the key before I get really angry." I hissed lowly.

Kai came out of the bathroom to see the commotion.

"What the hell is going on?"

"Ashe won't say where she went this morning since she came back later than usual. I think she hooked up with some hot Italian guy but she won't say who." the Blunette claimed as he climbed out of the tub.

"I wasn't out hooking up. I was doing double training to try and make up for what I missed this past week so shut the fuck up already!"

Kai and Ray grabbed Tyson and hauled him out into the hallway to proceed to do something but I didn't give a damn and went into the shower to take my turn. I spent fourty five minutes under the soothing water before coming out changed and ready to head to the stadium. When we got there I was marvled by the architecture. The stadium was was built to be a scaled model replica of the Roman Colliseum. Tyson stepped throught an archway to the dish that sat in the center but suddenly, iron gates came down cutting us off from Tyson and Enrique who stepped foreward on the other side wearing what looked to be old Roman Centurian armor.

"My family comes from a strong ling of gladiators." He bragged as he pulled out an old fashioned launcher.

"Hey Kenny, think you can find us a way into the stands so we can watch from a better view?" Ray asked as Kenny opened up Dizzi.

"Well in ancient times, the actual colliseum did have passageways where the guards led the animals through before returning to the stands. So if my calculations are correct, there should be a passage right around here." He moved his hand over a stone on the wall and pressed it, revealing a hidden doorway.

"Nice work, Kenny. Let's go." Max said as they took off down the passage.

I took my sweet stime, not really caring about stupid Tyson's battle with the womanizer, Enrique. By the time I actually made it into the stands both Tyson and Enrique had called out their bitbeasts.

"Wow, an Amphisbaena, nice to see something different for a change." I claimed as I sat beside Ray.

"What's that, Ashe?" Max asked.

"It's a mythological ant eating creature. According to Greek and Roman mythology, it's one of the creatures that spawned from the blood that dropped to the ground from Medusa's head as Perseus carried it over Lybia." I stated, proud of my high mythological knowledge while the others looked at me with surprised eyes.

The battle wasn't going too well especially when Amphilyon decided to just skip going after Dragoon and made a beeline straight for Tyson. Lucky for him, Dragoon stood ny and protected him which gave Enrique the win. Tyson demanded a rematch but his blade was too trashed. Luckily, Kenny had a spare blade ready just for the occasion. However, this time Oliver showed up for the rematch. The battle took a sharp turn and went in Tyson's favor after the two heads of Amphilyon started to attack one another. That act definatly didn't bode well with Enrique.

"Hey! You two better listen to me or you'll be in big trouble!" He thundered angerly at his twin headed bitbeast.

But angered by their Master's threats, the two heads turned on Enrique who just stood there in fear. I wouldn't put it past him if he wet himself in that armor. Tyson, being the big hearted jerk he is, tackled Enrique out of the way and Dragoon went in for the finishing attack, giving the blunette the win.

"Tyson...thank you. You taught me that I need to respect my bitbeast." Enrique said as he graciously shook Tyson's hand. "Hey, let me make it up to you. Oliver, let's take them to Robert's castle. He's the European Champion beyblader."

"Hey does this Robert guy have purple hair and a huge bitbeast named Grypholion?" I asked.

The two foreign bladers faces' lit up at my question.

"Yeah, he's a really good friend of ours. Why?"

"Well the dunce here got his ass kicked bad back on a boat by Robert and now he wants a rematch." I stated while Tyson fumed at me for calling him a dunce.

"Well we'll take you to him. We've been wanting to go visit for a while anyway and now we have a good enough reason." Enrique said.

"Yeah that's right. We can take my family's blimp." Oliver added.

"Awesome! Look out, Robert cause I'm comin' for ya!" Tyson shouted to the sky with enthusiasm.

'Oh boy, here we go again.'

Whisper - Evanescence

The State of Massachusetts - DropKick Donkeys

End Of All Hope - Nighwish

Addicted To You - Utada Hikaru

Love Is A Battlefield - Pat Benetar

Love Will Find A Way - Lion King II


	15. Ice's Destruction and Fire's Fury

DISCLAIMER: I OWN NOTHING OF BEYBLADE! I ONLY REALLY OWN JUST ASHE HERSELF. HER BITBEAST ANIVIA, ISN'T MINE. SHE WAS FIRST AND FORMOST CREATED AS A CHARACTER TO PLAY IN THE GAME LEAGUE OF LEGENDS BUT SHE'S JUST SO AWESOME BUT AGAIN I DON'T CLAIM HER AS MY OWN! I'M TRYING TO NOT COPY THE DIALOGUE FROM BEYBLADE BUT I'M ALSO TRYING TO MAKE SURE THAT I DON'T MAKE KAI SOUND LIKE AN IDIOT.

THIS IS ONE OF MY FAVORITE CHAPTERS TO WRITE AND THERE'S ONLY 5 CHAPTERS LEFT BEFORE THE END OF SEASON 1!

ALSO I APOLOGISE IF I SPELLED THE BITBEASTS NAMES WRONG BUT I'M PLAYING IT BY EAR AND THAT'S HOW IT SOUNDS SO AGAIN I APOLOGISE!

A THIRD APOLOGY GOES TO THOSE WHO MIGHT SEE ASHE AS MARY SUE IN THIS CHAPTER. THIS CHAPTER NOT ONLY CONTAINS IMPROTANT ELEMENTS IN THE STORY THAT WILL EFFECT IT LATER ON, BUT THERE'S MAJOR FLUFF BETWEEN KAI AND ASHE!

Olive and Enrique decided to pay Robert a visit and because Tyson was adament about battling him, we got to go along for the ride in Oliver's blimp. As we got closer to the castle, we hit a small storm causing everyone but me, Kai, Enrique and Oliver to worry.

"There it is, you guys. Robert's castle." Enrique pointed out as we got closer.

The structure was brilliant and the architecture was superb.

"It's beautiful." I whispered aloud.

"Are you serious, Ashe? That looks like a place for Count Dracula to live as a summer home." Tyson mocked causing me to growl at him.

"Shut up, Tyson. God knows you can't appreciate something as magnificent as this."

As the blimp landed, a man who seemed to be the butler came out to greet us.

"Ah Masters Enrique and Oliver, always a pleasure to have you here."

"Hello Gustav. Does Robert know we were coming?" Oliver asked as the butler Gustav bowed to them.

"Yes, Master Robert was informed of your coming as soon as you called." He glanced over at Tyson. "Uh, I'm terribly sorry sir, but we're not looking for kitchen help at this moment."

Angered by the remark, Tyson glared angerly at the old man while crossing his arms.

"Hey get bent old man.(he really does say that in the episode even the english dubbed). We're here to see Robert. I'm gonna challenge him to a beybattle." I stepped foreward and bowed slightly to the man in politeness.

"My apoligise, sir, but you wouldn't want Tyson in the kitchen anyway. Robert would never get any food because it would all be eaten."

"Ashe, what the hell'd you say that for?" Tyson groaned as I just smacked him upside the head in response.

"Yes, well. Come this way. I'll show you where you can wait for Master Robert." Gustav led us through the castle to a dining hall where he served us all tea,

"This tea is wonderful. I've never tasted anything like it." I commented as it was really good though my team, except Kai, looked at me weirdly for my comment but they didn't say anything.

Gustav gave me a warm smile as he continued to pour.

"Thank you, Miss. It's Master Robert's favorite tea, scented jasmine. Imported directly from India with a special blend of my own mixture as well."

"Really? I'll have to see how I can aquire some before we leave." I noted as I sipped it again while Tyson was throwing a fit.

"Ashe, seriously? We're not here to talk about tea, we're here to battle Robert!" My eyes narrowed from across the table.

"No, you're here to battle Robert. We're just along for the ride. I hope he kicks your ass again for your impudence." I teased as Tyson began fuming again.

"Hey Gustav, where's Robert? I wanna talk to him now!" Tyson demanded, while the butler kept his cool.

"Unfortunatly, Master Robert is engaged in another matter at the moment but will be with you as soon as he can."

"That's ok, Gustav, we can wait for Robert." Enrique said, however after only an hour, Tyson started getting antsy.

"Why the hell are we still sitting here? That's it! I'm going to find Robert!" He claimed as he stood up in protest.

"Sit down, Tyson." Kai ordered, not even bothering to open his eyes as he drank his tea.

"Any why should I?"

"Because you'd get lost in this castle within thirty seconds." I commented as I paused my music.

"Well too bad, cause I'm goin'." And he took off through a set of doors, passing Gustav on the way.

"Shall I stop him, young Masters?"

"Nah, let him go. He'll just get lost trying to find Robert." I explained as I sipped more of the delicious tea.

After another fifteen minutes, Gustav agreed to take us to Robert. As we walked along the many corridors, I stared in awe at the many different paintings as suits of armor.

"These paintings are amazing. Who created these?" I asked.

"Master Robert has the best painters in the world recreating the worlds finest artwork." Gustav explained and sure enough we passed painting of Da Vinci's 'Mona Lisa', Monet's 'Water Lily's' and a few others I recognized.

We came to a stop in front of double doors. Gustav knocked before entering where we saw Robert facing a brown spiky haired boy in a chess match.

"Master Robert, forgive the intrusion but-"

"Hey there Robert, how've ya been?" Enrique asked, stepping forward with Oliver.

"Ah Oliver, Enrique. I was told of your arrival but who are these people you brought with you?" He asked, motioning to us.

"These are our new friend, the Bladebreakers. Max, Ray, Kenny, Kai and Ashe. There's another one named Tyson but he's probably got himself lost." Oliver explained as I stepped forward and gave Robert a small bow.

"I apologize in advance for any dumbass things that are caused by Tyson. He's been anxious to have a rematch with you since the boat."

"Really?...And I presume that is the reason you all are here."

"Yes,...unfortunatly." I responded before glancing at the chessboard that he stood next to.

The game seemed incomplete but could be ended quickly given the right moves be played.

"Checkmate in three." I whispered to myself but Robert seemed to hear me and caught on.

"Really, in three moves? Alright, then show me."

He motioned to the other seat took his seat while I sat opposite in the kid's chair as everyone, including Gustav, gathered around us as I moved the Knight first. His reaction, as I predicted, was to move his Bishop to capture my King, putting me in check, however he left his King open for my Queen.

"Checkmate." I said as I moved my Queen to capture the King, knocking him over and ending the game.

"Wha-What?" The mysterious kid's expression was priceless while Robert smirked.

"Very impressive, miss...?"

"Ashe...Ashe Taro." He held his hand out to mine that I shook briefly before letting go, feeling slightly uncomfortable with all eyes on me.

Thankfully, before anyone could say anything a crash like noise came from the nearby fireplace and out popped Tyson.

"And that...unfortunatly...is Tyson."

Robert and Tyson had a back and forth banter but in the end, Robert still refused to battle Tyson. The kid, who we learned from Kenny and Dizzi, was Scotland's Beyblade Champion Johnny McGreggor, challenged Kai to a match.

"Sorry but I'm not interested." Our leader said casually from his place against the wall.

Johnny started throwing a fit like a little kid which caused Kai to say something incredibly awesome.

"Looks like somebody skipped anger-management class."

"Ouch." I commented bluntly which made Johnny glare at me but it didn't phase me in the slightest.

In the end, Kai agreed to battle Johnny...probably to get him to shut the hell up. Robert led us to a giant training room, covered in gouges and dents mostly likely from Robert training with Griffolion. Johnny and Kai took their places opposite the dish as Oilver started the countdown.

"3...2...1...LET IT RIP!"

The two bladers launched with speed and ferosity. Johnny has a salamander bitbeast named Salamalyon whose element attribute was fire. Fighting fire with fire made the stone room extreamly hot that got so out of control, the bitbeast's fire attacks headed straight for Kai. Without thinking, I ran up and pushed Kai down and out of the way, using my arms to shield my face from the fire which attacked my hands, buring them as well as singging my underarms. I bit my lip so hard to keep from screaming in pain that I tasted the metalic taste of blood quickly as Dranzer lost the match and stopped spinning.

Kai just stood there, shocked beyond belief at what happened. When he finally snapped out of it and picked up the defeated Dranzer, Johnny turned away.

"I respect you for that battle but you fight with no wit or strength. We're done here."

'How dare he...!'

Angered beyond all belief I tore off my coat and gloves, both had been damaged by the fire caused by Salamalyon and Dranzer. I jumped back up to the ring and pulled out Anivia.

"You want a battle with wit and strenght, then fight me you arrogant scottish prick!"

Everyone seemed shicked at my sudden outburst but Johnny took no notice.

"Sorry but I refuse to fight someone like you."

I pulled out my launcher and loaded Anivia, aiming for Johnny's head.

"Fight me, Johnny." I ordered, malice dripping off my every word, but still the little bastard refused so I cocked my 'gun'.

"ASHE, NO!" The others called but I ignored them and launched Anivia, watching her speed right for Johnny's head but something stopped her before she came in contact.

"I'll fight you in Johnny's place if you're so eager for a battle." Robert declared as our blades returned to our hands.

I flinched only slightly as my hands were bleeding from the wounds I sustained from the fire. We loaded our launchers as Enrique refereed.

"Alright...3...2...1...LET IT RIP!" I cocked and launched again, Anivia hurdling towards the bowl clashing with Robert's Griffolion.

"I'll end this quickly so as not you embarass you further. Go, Griffolion!" The great gryphin emerged from his blade and started clashing but Anivia held fast and strong, almost as if she wasn't phased by the sudden attack.

"Trust me when I say this, Robert. It's you who's going to be embarassed when I destroy you and your blade with one attack! ANIVIA, ARISE AND TAKE FLIGHT!"

I could feel her power surging through my body as her blade glowed blue and she emerged from her blade, gracefully. My CryoPhoenix, Anivia. Everyone stared in awe at her magnifigence. This was the first time anyone had ever seen her...even Kai.

"HOLY FUCKING SHIT! SHE'S HUGE!" Tyson exclaimed in excitement.

I looked at all of their shocked faces and smirked. It's true she was big, at least twice the size of Griffolion. As she flapped her enormous ice blue wings, the training room started to drop dramatically in temperature and cracked the walls further as the began to gain a small sheet of ice.

"Uuhh...g-guys...is it j-j-just m-m-me o-or did it just g-g-g-get c-cold i-in h-h-here?" Max stuttered.

"Anivia's an ice bitbeast so I hope you all brought your scarfs and parka's." Dizzi said.

"Her power level's off the charts! I have to close down the program of else Anivia's power will overload Dizzi's circuts!"

"She's...amazing." I heard Kai whisper.

"Robert, you and the others are not the only one's to have their bitbeasts passed through family. Anivia, finish this! FROST BITE!"

'This is for you, Kai.'

Anivia rode up the side of the dish and into the air. She came down with tremendous speed, clashing with Griffolionand shattering his blade while her mirror beast image brought her wings together and created an icicle that smashed through Griffolion. As gasps were heard around, Anivia gave a triumphant cry before disapearing back into her blade. As she continued to spin in the same spot, the only small sound that could be heard was blood creating a small puddle beside my feet but no one seemed to take any notice.

"Don't worry. Anivia only shattered your blade, Griffolion is fine. Maybe you shouldn't underestimate your opponent so quickly. Let that be a lession to you all, especially you Johnny." I stated as she retreated back to my hand.

"But...how...why..." Tyson couldn't seem to get a straight sentence out.

I just grabbed my coat and the remains of my gloves.

"Gustav will show you to your room. You can stay here the night." Robert stated as the training room door opened to reveal Gustav.

I wrapped my coat around my still bleeding hands so no one would notice and question me. Gustav led us to a room with six beds where our bags from the blimp were waiting for us. I sat down on the edge of the bed farthest away from the door, still keeping my hands covered from view. Kai sat beside me but didn't say anything. The others kept talking about what happened between Anivia and Griffolion until there was a knock on the door. Ray went and answered where a doctor stood waiting.

"Master Robert sent me here to see to Miss Ashe's wounds."

"Wounds?" Kai asked as he looked down at my covered hands.

He gently pulled back the coat's remains and gasped aloud when he saw my hands, causing the doctor to come right over. The other started crowding to see the problem and I made no eye contact with anyone.

"Ashe, how did this happen?"

I didn't answer Kai's question, mainly because I was uncomfortable with everyone crowding around me.

"Alright for the sake of Miss Ashe, I must ask you all to leave the room, please." The doc said as he opened his bag.

Ray practically had to drag Kai out of the room so the doctor could examine my burned hands. As he bagan to place some slave on my hands I could hear the team shouting at each other in the hallway, mainly Kai and Tyson.

"WAY TO GO, TYSON! IF YOU HADN'T INSISTED ON BATTLING ROBERT, THEN WE WOULDN'T BE IN THIS FUCKING MESS!" Kai yelled to Tyson as a huge, loud, pounding sound came from against the wall that seemed to be someone punching it, presumably Kai.

"ME? SHE'S THE ONE WHO PUSHED YOU OUT OF THE WAY! IF ANYTHING IT'S HER OWN DAMN FAULT!"

"SHE SAVED MY LIFE! IT'S POSSIBLE THAT IF SHE DIDN'T PUSH ME OUT OF THE WAY, I WOULD BE EITHER BURNED WORSE THAN HER, OR DEAD!"

I winced a bit as the doctor started wrapping up my hands.

"I'm sorry, Miss Ashe. You're going to have to change these bandages once every day or so, depending on how often you use them. Luckily they seem to be no more than second degree burns. Do you have someone who can help you?"

"Yeah. One of my teammates can help me." He gave me the bottle that had the salve in it.

"Put this on your wounds when you change the bandages. Is there anywhere else that was burned as well?" The underside of my arms stung a little bit but not as much as my hands did so I showed him them as well.

He wrapped up my arms as well before leaving the room. The boys came in immediatly following the doctors exit, Kai getting to my bed first.

"Ashe, are you alright?" he asked as he gently took my bandaged hands in his.

"I'm fine, Kai. Nothing to worry about, I've been burned before." I said as the others started getting ready for bed.

Kai seemed reluctant to let my hands go but he did and readied himself for bed. I changed quickly and crawled under the covers of my bed, trying to fall asleep but failed. Later, during the night as I desperatly tried to fall asleep, the others kept talking about battling Robert...again. They ended up coming together with the plan to battle him and the other Eurpoean bladers as a team.

"We'll avenge Kai's loss as one." Kenny said and I shifted in the bed till I ended up facing Kai who was also awake.

"I guess that makes my victory nothing." I whispered sadly turing back around.

Kai clenched his fist and growled lowly but I still heard it.

_'Mistress, please you must try and get some rest so your hands can have a chance to heal. I''m sure Master Kai will be more than happy to help you with your bandages.'_

**'It's not about my hands. It's like...anything I do, it doesn't matter to anyone except Kai. I mean, yeah I want Kai to appreciate me but I'm sick of the others not bothering. They've never made it openly aware that I'm also a part of the team and I'm sick of it.'**

I really felt hurt by the others who went back to sleep mostly reaming of how they were going to kick butt. As for me, I couldn't fall asleep. I sat up around two a.m. to see everyone, even Kai, sleeping. Slipping out of bed, I silently grabbed my tools and slipped over to Kai's bed where he had Dranzer placed beside his pillow.

'Kai's going to want a rematch with Johnny, so I'm going to help him kick the aggorant ass that is Johnny McGreggor.'

I grasped Dranzer with my tool box and slipped out of the room without waking anyone. I slipped through the shadows of Robert's castle towards the garden that we passed on the way in earlier. I slipped into the garden through the unlocked gate and found a stone bench near some red and white roses. I sat down and set to work. I completely took apart both Dranzer and Anivia ignoring the throbbing in my hands. After looking over the parts for Dranzer, i rebuilt him with a modified version of Anivia's attack ring and a more durable defense ring. I also gave him a whole new weight ring that weighed the same as his old one did but it would help give more stability. When I put Dranzer back together, he looked almost exactly the way he did before. As I finished putting a new modified Anivia together, there was a rustle and the snapping of a twig. Cautiously, I pulled out my gun and cocked it with the safety on.

"Who's there?" I calle dout while keeping myself partially hidden by a rose bush.

The noise got closer as I heard footsteps approaching and I saw movement come into the moonlight.

"Robert?" I asked curiously, lowering my gun as the purple haired teen stepped forward carrying a lantern.

"Ashe, I was wondering where you ran off to." He said as he set the lantern on the ground.

"How'd you know I was here?" I asked as I sat back down on the bench.

"I saw you through my window. My room faces in the direction of the garden." He explained simply.

"Oh, I didn't mean to seem intrusive. It's just that...gardens hold much tranquility and I alwasy feel at peace when I'm within them." I said as I looked around and fingured the petals of a nearby rose.

"How are your hands?" He asked as he looked down at them.

"They're fine. They throb every now and then but I've been burned before so the pain's not new to me. Your doctor was very gentle." I answered as I held Anivia in my hands.

"Your bitbeast is beautiful and her power is amazing. I've never seen anything like her before."

Anivia went cool in my hand at his comment.

"She thanks you for the complement." I said was as I giggled softly at the tingly feeling.

He gave me a confused look so I answered his obvious question.

"She sent a chilling reaction through the blade. Actually, it felt kinda nice on my hands." Robert chuckled as he looked up in the trees.

"So what brings you out here so late at night?"

"I couldn't sleep so I decided to do some modifications on my blade but I needed a place where I could think and not disturb anyone so I headed for the garden. I remembered passing them when Gustav led us through the castle."

Robert stood up and walked over to a red rose bush and plucked on before handing it to me.

"Come back to the castle with me. I have something for you." I placed Anivia and Dranzer in my pocket, the rose behind my ear, grabbed my tools and followed Robert back up to the castle and past various rooms until he led me to the front of one.

He opened the door to reveal a room with a bunch of manaquins having different clothes on them.

"Wait here." He said and dissapeared into the sea of dummy's only to reappear thirty seconds later holding a black coat just like the one I had.

"Here, try this on." He helped slip the coat on and led me to a full body mirror where I could see it better.

"Robert it's beautiful." I whispered as I twirled a bit to see who it looked from behind.

In the bottom corner was an embroidered red rose.

"Here, try these on too, if you can." He handed me a pair of black leather gloves with the same rose design on the back of the hands.

"These are amazing." He smiled at my compliment as I gently slipped the gloves on over my bandages.

"I'm glad you like them. They're yours."

This shocked me greatly. People just didn't up and give me gifts very often...actually the last thing I got from anyone was my I-POD that Kai gave me four years ago.

"What do you mean?"

"Well I know your other gloves got burned badley as well as your coat from Johnny and Kai's beybattle and you gave me a battle that I won't ever forget. So I'm giving these to you as a thank you. So they're yours." He answered as I stood there shocked.

"Thank you, Robert. Thank you so much." And then I gave him something I don't normally give anyone.

A hug.

He gently hugged me back and I felt like I should've been crying but the tears never came, though I didn't expect them to. We pulled away after a few seconds and the clock chimed three times.

"Well I guess I should try and get a small bit of sleep before I get up to train in an hour."

"Your captain makes you get up at four a.m. to train?" I chuckled a bit.

"Oh no. Only I get up that early for training. The others don't wake up until at least eight thirty or so." Robert smiled at my response.

"You seem to have quite the determination for blading. I admire that. You're more than welcom to use my training room. It's three doors down from the ones to the garden on your right."

"Thank you again Robert. Your generosity and hospitality have been wonderful." I said as I bowed in politeness.

"Good night, Ashe."

"Good night, Robert."

I left the room quietly and headed back to the room we were staying in. Before etering I took off the jacket and gloves being careful of mt hands and slipped inside. Everyone was still fast asleep so I placed Dranzer back in his spot and crawled into bed after setting everything else down. I pulled out my I-POD as I laid down and tried to focus on sleeping as 'What Dreams Are Made Of', 'Someone's Waiting For You', and 'You'll Be In My Heart' played. However, no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't sleep and soon it didn't matter. Four a.m. came around and I prepared to train. Once again, I slipped out of the room without waking anyone and found my way to the training room that Robert told me about with no trouble. It was as big as a high school gymnasium, equipt with weight lifting, a punching bag, tredmills, bicycles, and some gymnastics's equipment with mats.

'I think I've died and gone to training heaven.' I sighed as I began my immediate trianing. I enjoyed using Robert's equipment and used as much of it as I could. When I started to feel hungry around eleven-thirty, I went back to the room to see that everyone was gone but their stuff was still there, even Kai's.

"Oh great, where'd those knuckleheads run off to now?" I muttered as I grabbed an apple, my new coat and gloves with the rose that Robert gave me last night. After placing the rose behind my ear, I headed for the first place I could think of that the majority of the team would be: the Dining Hall where Gustav had served us tea last night. Luckily, I found them there but they were stuffing their faces like it was their last meal on Earth. Kai was the only one not there but that didn't surprise me.

"Are you freakin' kidding me? What the hell's the matter with you guys?" They stopped eating and looked up at me.

"Oh, hey Ashe. Where've you been?" Tyson asked, thankfully having the decency to swallow before speaking.

"Training like you guys should be, not stuffing your faces. Where's Kai?"

"We have no idea. He was gone when we woke up...just like you. We thought he was with you." Ray said.

"Hey, where'd you get the gloves and jacket. Their neat!" Max complumented as he added mustard to...something.

"Robert gave them to me."

They all stopped eating and the room fell silent.

"HE WHAT?"

"Yeah, because I appreaciated his hospitality. Not take adventage of it like you morons are." What I basically said was the truth, I did appreciate all that Robert had to do to put up with this teams' antics but that wasn't the true reason he gave me the coat and gloves. "But that's not the point, so I'm going to look for Kai. Don't come cryin' to me when Robert throws you our on your ass!" I scolded as I left the room and went outside for some fresh air.

While exploring the garden in daylight, I heard a strange noise. Curiosity got the best of me so I followed the sound to a small part of the nearby woods where I saw Kai shredding trees with his new Dranzer.

'Figures.'

"I thought I'd find you out here somewhere. Seems my modifications to Dranzer work nicely."

Kai spun around shocked to see me but gave me a smirk nonetheless.

"Yeah, what'd you do?" He asked, taking a seat on a newly fallen tree.

"I took him and Anivia apart last night and modified him with her attack ring and added it with a more durable defense ring along with a lighter weight ring. It weighs the same but it will help give Dranzer more stability." I explained as I sat beside him.

"When did you have time to do all this?" He asked as he looked me directly in the eyes.

'Oh, shit.'

"I couldn't sleep last night and I knew you'd want another rematch with Johnny so I decided to upgrade Dranzer with some of Anivia's parts. I knew they'd help you win. I upgraded her with some modified parts that I had in my toolbox."

"But Ashe, this must have taken some time and you were still in bed when I fell asleep around one." He countered.

"I gave up trying to sleep around two so I snuck out of the castle with my tools and Dranzer and went to the garden. Robert found me around two fourty-five or so." Kai tensed a bit at that little bit of information.

"What did he do? Did he hurt you?" he demanded which confused me a bit but I just shook my head in response.

"No, he was kind and gentlemanly to me. He said that he admired my passion and dedication for blading, saying that I gave him a battle he'd remember forever. And as thanks you, he gave me these gloves and coat." I pulled out the gloves from my pocket since I didn't want to tear my bandages by wearing them.

"And he didn't do anything else?"

"No. I headed back to my room around three and just layed in bed listening to music until four so I got up and went to a different room that Robert gave me full access to. When I finished, I came looking for you guys." I explained, averting my gaze because I knew I was about to get a lecture from the look on Kai's face.

"So wait...you're saying that you haven't slept at all? Ashe, you know better than to do that!"

"I know that Kai, but like I said, I couldn't sleep so I didn't have much of a choice. I can't force myself to sleep, besides it's not that big of a deal." Kai scooted closer to me and took my bandaged hands in his again causing me to look at him.

"How're your hands?" he asked gently.

"They're ok...they throb every now and then but like I said last night, it's nothing new to me. I've been burned before."

"And why did you push me out of the way? it's possible that you could've been hurt a lot worse than this." He asked with much sincere in his voice.

"It was just something I felt I had to do and my body just responded automatically." I admitted as I found myself locking eyes with Kai.

Neither of us said anything and it seemed for a while, we didn't have to. I thought I could feel our bodies moving closer and closer until...

"KAI!...ASHE!...YOU OUT THERE?" Tyson's annoying voice echoed and I could definatly hear Kai growling.

Seconds later, Tyson and the other burst through the bushes causing Kai and I to immediatly break apart.

"Hey, we've been looking all over for ya. Gustav wants us to head to the tennis courts." The blunette decreed so...reluctantly...we headed to the tennis courts wehre Robert, Johnny, Enrique and Oliver stood waiting.

"We've come to a decision. We've agreed to battle you if you agree to accept our condition. The battle will be a best two of three matches and the winner's will take place in the World Championships. So do you accept?" Robert proposed.

"You bet we do! You're on!" Tyson shot back.

"Excellent, the match will take place tomorrow at noon. We'll use my new stadium and this battle will be the perfect way to promote it." Robert declared while Johnny looked disgusted.

"New stadium? Robert, these guys aren't worthy enough for that." He spat.

I stepped forward to give him a piece of my mind when Kai grasped me firmly around the waist to hold me back.

"Calm down." He whispered in my ear causing involuntary shivers to cascade down my spine.

Robert was kind enough to put us up again for the night which was extreamly generous for him to do...especially since Tyson and the others ate almost everything there was in the kitchen. Luckily, good was to be delivered that afternoon anyway but this time I kept a closer watch on them to make sure we didn't have a repeat of what happened this morning. The next morning, we took a heliopter ride to Robert's new stadium where people were already starting to arrive. Most of them seemed to come from money as the majority of them came dressed in expensive fancy clothes. Tyson had a day at the park in the new stadium. As we sat in the locker room, the guys decided who was going to participate. Ray wanted to go and so did Tyson while Max clapped Kai on the back and said, 'Good luck'. I just stood in the corner as if I was invisible.

_'Don't worry, Mistress. I'm sure you'll get a chance to battle someother time.'_ Anivia tried to comfort me.

**'I don't care about that. They didn't even ask me if I wanted to battle. I knew Tyson wanted to battle Robert and Kai want's the rematch with Johnny but was I even considered, no. No one but Kai seems to appreciate what I do...'** I thought angerly as I looked down at my hands. **'I guess it's time for me to change my bandages.'**

I opened my bag and grabbed the bandages and salve that the kind doctor had given me for my wounds. I sat down against the wall and took off my jacket as the bandages went up my arms as well. As I started to unwrap them, I felt a hand hand over mine. I looked up to see Kai kneeling before me.

"Need some help?" he asked.

I didn't say anything but instead, nodded my head. He took the wrappings from my hands and gently continued to take them off. His face softened as he took them off completely, his eyes scanning over my wounds.

"I still can't beliebe you did that...for me." he whispered as I saw his eyes gaze my burns more and more.

"I did it because you're my best friend. And I battled Robert to avenge what Johnny did to you, since he was too much of a coward to face me himself." Kai gently placed the salve on my hands and under my arms before starting to wrap them.

"Why haven't you shown me Anivia before? You've never called her out in battle, even when I battle you with Dranzer. Why?"

I had to look away.

"Because she's special to me and there are poeple in the world who want her for themselves and if I'm in a tournament and I call her out, those people might find me and take her when they find me at a vulnerable moment. I showed her that night because I was angry and wanted to prove that under-estemating your opponent is a very dangerous thing." That was ninty-four percent true. "I've always wanted to show her to you but I didn't know how you'd react seeing her." I whispered back, that statement being one-hundred percent true.

"I...I thought she was beautiful...amazing...powerful...just li-"

"KAI, C'MON ALREADY!" Tyson shouted as the other left the room to go to the ring.

Kai has finished bandaging my hands and we stood up.

"Ready?"

"Yeah, now let's go." He said and we headed into the ring where the seats were pretty much filled to the rim with people.

"Welcome Beyblade Fans, to the once in a life time event between the Bladebreakers and the four Top European Beyblade compedators, the Majestics!"

The four Europeans seemd discusted at the fact that they were being called a team. They all wore their signature battle armor and drew cards to see who was going to participate.

Oliver- Nine of Clubs

Robert- Ace of Spades

Johnny- Queen of Hearts

Enrique- Seven of Diamonds

Enrique got the short end of the stick apparently and sat down on the bench with a pouty look. Kenny had dissapeared to go to the bathroom but we heard his cries of help coming from behind. Turning around we saw him in the stands surrounded by the Dark Bladers.

"You freaks here for a rematch?" Tyson challenged but the vampire scoffed.

"Relax. We just consider ourselves the Bladebreakers Monster Cheerleaders." He answered as JazzMan called for the first two compedators to step up.

Ray stepped forward to battle first which meant he would be battling Oliver. The battle seemed evenly match and eventually ended in a draw. Kai stepped up next to battle Johnny. Their battle got extreamly heated, especially when Dranzer summoned a wall of fire for defense. Salamalyon smashed against Dranzer causing him to wobble a bit and things got even more intense when both beasts emerged and Salamalyon wrapped itself around Dranzer.

"You're even more pathetic than before. Why don't you step down and let me have a go at your little girlfriend there. She actually seems to be a truly worthy opponent who's waisting her time being on a team with a bunch of losers."

I saw Kai shake with deifnate rage and clench his fists which truly wasn't a good sign.

"LEAVE HER OUTTA THIS! YOU'RE BATTLE IS WITH ME AND ME ALONE! DRANZER," I don't know if anyone else noticed it but I saw the mighty red phoenix look down at Kai. "FLY!"

Immediatly, Dranzer broke free of Salamalyon's grasp and knocked him into the air before taking off after him, grasping him firmly in his talons before slamming him into the ground. Salamalyon dissapeared back into his blade as it came to a spin stop.

"And the winner is...KAI!" Dranzer retracted back into his own blade before retreating to Kai's hand as I left the ring witout a word to anyone.

I headed outside and down to the water's edge that the stadium sat on. I took off my jacket and my boots, stepping into the water. A cooling sensation coursed through my body as I sat down on the edge, stretching my legs out.

_'Mistress, why aren't you inside watching the battle between Tyson and Robert?'_

**'Because even though I really want Robert to kick Tyson's ass repeatidly, that dumbass will somehow manage to pull a win out of his ass because we need to get to Russia.'**

_'Are you nervous about going home, Mistress?'_

**'A little more than normal. I'm always nervous every year but that's because I'm there for just a few days. But this time, we'll be there for a lot longer. I'm just hoping no one finds out.'**

_'Why don't you explain the situation to Master Kai? I'm sure he'd understand. According to Dranzer, he's always curious as to where you go every year. Perhaps it's time that you tell him.'_

**'Because for two reasons. A-I don't want him to think differently just because of a stupid technicality that I wish never was and B-Because besides you, he's really been my only true friend and I don't wanna lost that. So for now, no one is going to know.**' I sighed heavily as I kicked my legs back and forth softly, so the water rippled and creathed tiny waves but didn't splash.

I'm not sure how long I sat there but I enjoyed every moment of peace I recieved. The peace ended when I heard voices.

"I don't understand why she'd just up and leave before Tyson went on."

It was Ray, followed by Tyson's annoying voice.

"Ah who cares, Ray. We're going to Russia and that's all that matters."

"Hey guys, there she is. ASHE!" Max saw me sitting and gave me a small wave.

I said nothing as I pulled my feet out, put my socks and boots back on before grabbing my coat and following the others back to Robert's helicoptor. They told me about meeting Mr D and how it was his whole plan to strand us in London so we could travel the different parts of Europe and learn more about beyblading. Robert agreed to let us spend the night again, provided we leave in the morning. Naturally, we agreed without complaint. The rest of the night was seemingly uneventful. Oliver, Johnny and Enrique stayed the night as well. Enrique tried hitting on me again which earned him a punch from Kai and laughter from the others.

I was able to sneak out into the garden while everyone else was occupied by other things. I found the same spot that I was in a few nights ago. As I sat there listening to the rustling of the leaves, I pulled out my wooden flute and played 'Reflection', feeling that it kinda described me in some way. As I played, I listened to the words in my head.

**Look at me**

**I will never pass for a perfect bride**

**Or a perfect daughter**

**Can it be, I'm not meant to play this part?**

**Now I see**

**That if I were truly to be myself,**

**I would break my family's heart**

**Who is that girl I see, **

**Staring straight back at me**

**Why is my reflection someone I don't know?**

**Somehow I cannot hide**

**Who I am, thought I've tried**

**When will my relfection show**

**Who I am inside?**

**When will my reflection show**

**Who i am inside?**

The sun started to set as I finished playing. Wanting to get back before it got too dark, I plucked another rose this time hoping that Robert wouldn't mind. I placed it behind my ear and headed back to the castle. It seemed that no one really took notice of my absense. SO I just headed to bed, not really wanting to deal with anyone. I changed for bed and plugged in my I-POD, falling asleep to 'That's The Way It Is.'

* * *

><p>I'd like to clear something up before you suddenly review. Anivia is not the most powerful bitbeast ever. She's been beaten by Dranzer numerous times in the past. Black Dranzer will remain the most powerful as stated on the Beyblade Wiki page.<p>

**So we've gotten a first chance look at Anivia and more Kai/Ashe fluff. At this point, I've begun writing season2 and am working on ideas for season3 which is probably going to be the best of the three seasons.**

**THERE IS ALSO NO ROMANCE WHAT-SO EVER BETWEEN ASHE AND ROBERT! IT'S STRICTLY RESPECT AND POSSIBLE FRIENDSHIP BUT IT WILL NEVER BE ANYTHING MORE.**

**Also if you look at the picture now provided for this story, that is Ashe and Anivia with what her blade looks like for this season. It may change for season two but it will defiantly change for season three. If you wish to view the picture bigger, the link is posted on my profile.**

What Dream's Are Made Of- The Lizzie Mguire Movie

Someone's Waiting For You- The Rescuers

You'll Be In My Heart- Phil Collins

Reflection- Mulan

That's The Way It Is- Celien Dion


	16. Memory Is Bitter

DISCLAIMER: I OWN NOTHING OF BEYBLADE! I ONLY REALLY OWN JUST ASHE HERSELF. HER BITBEAST ANIVIA, ISN'T MINE. SHE WAS FIRST AND FORMOST CREATED AS A CHARACTER TO PLAY IN THE GAME LEAGUE OF LEGENDS BUT SHE'S JUST SO AWESOME BUT AGAIN I DON'T CLAIM HER AS MY OWN! I'M TRYING TO NOT COPY THE DIALOGUE FROM BEYBLADE BUT I'M ALSO TRYING TO MAKE SURE THAT I DON'T MAKE KAI SOUND LIKE AN IDIOT.

**OK SHINGINGHEART, HERE'S THE ANSWER TO YOUR REVIEW: I'LL LET YOU DECIDE IF KAI AND ASHE WERE GOING TO KISS IN THE LAST CHAPTER BEFORE TYSON INTERRUPTED THEM. KAI WASN'T THINKING WHEN HE DIDN'T DENY ASHE AS HIS GIRLFRIEND IN HIS REMATCH BUT THEY AREN'T TOGETHER YET. DON'T WORRY THOUGH. THAT TIME WILL COME SOON ENOUGH. **

'_**this means speaking in russian'**_

**And for those of you who have seen, Phantom of the Opera, there is a scene depicted shortly that is modeled after the graveyard scene. I don't own that scene but felt that it helped pertain to Ashe's character even more.**

* * *

><p>The next morning when I woke up ,there was a note beside the rose I plucked the night before.<p>

'Ashe, you're welcome to use my training room again. I woul've told you this last night but you dissapeared. I wish you all luck at the World Championships. The Majestics will be watching you kick their undeserving butts. ~Robert~'

I smiled to myself at his gesture before readying myself and trained as much as I could. We'd be taking a train to St. Petersburg and then we'd catch the weekly subway to Moscow next week. I trained as hard as I could, as much as I could before there was a knock at the door.

"It's open!" I called from the punching bag I was kicking. My hands were still sore so punching was out of the question. The door opened to reveal Robert.

"Ashe, you're team is looking for you. I believe they're ready to depart." I grabbed the bottle of water that I'd been drinking.

"Thanks, Robert."

"Before you go, I have one last gift for you." He handed me a brown paper bag. "Gustav informed me the night you all arrived here that you enjoyed my tea so I had some bagged for you."

"Thank you, Robert. For everything you've done for us these past few days." He gave me a smile and we shook hands, though he was gentle of mine because of the burns.

I thanked him again and headed back to the room to see everyone finishing their packing. I changed quickly and packed what little I had, then Oliver and Enrique flew the blimp to the train station. Since we still had time to kill before our train would even board, I went to the bookshop they had there and got a few more books, selling the ones I'd already read to make sure I had room for other things. When we finally did board, we got a small compartment to ourselves but there were still plenty of people on the train. It was about two p.m. when we actually pulled out of the station and it would be seven or eight when we would arrive in St. Petersburg. Tyson actually spent a good majority of the time sleeping which was good because if he started complaining, I would've knocked him out myself. Thankfully, it didn't come to that so I enjoyed my time to read 'Beastly' and 'Betrayed', both really good books and they helped pass the time. When we pulled into the station around seven-fifty, the sun had pretty much set and everyone put on their coats, except me since I already had one, because it was so cold.

"Hey guys, I'll meet you at the hotel. There's something I have to do." I said as I hauled my bag onto my shoulder and left them standing there confused.

I knew where I was going and headed first to the floral shop.

_**"Hello, how can I help you?"**_ An elder woman who ran the shop stepped behind the counter.

_**"Yes, I called in a week ago to have a bouquet of red roses ready for the last name Taro?"**_ The woman smiled warmly.

_**"Ah yes, let me just go into the back and get them. Do you want them wrapped in anything?"**_

_"A black ribbon tied around them, please?"_ I asked and the woman smiled again before disspearing into the back.

Looking around again, I grabbed a couple of white lily's and a few white roses as the woman came out.

**_"Would you like anything else, deary?"_**

_**"Yes, ma'am. Can I get these wrapped with a blue ribbon, please?"**_

_**"Sure, are they for someone special?"**_

I nodded while giving her a weak smile.

**_"Yes, someone very special."_** She dissapeared into the back with the other set of flowers and emerged a short time later.

I thanked and paid her before leaving. I looked around to make sure I wasn't followed by the guys before climbing into a horse-drawn carriage.

_**"Where to, Ma'am?"**_

**_"The cemetary please. At the corner of Szcar and Durchitza_ **(both of them made up)**_."_**

He nodded and me moved on. I pulled the blanket provided for passengers over me legs as we rode, and held the flowers in hand. When we arrived at the cememtary, I paid him and thanked him before stepping down. He drove away as I passed through the gate. Although it was definatly a cliche, I started singing as I walked through the cemetary like I did every year.

'Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again'

**You were once my one companion**  
><strong>You were all that mattered<strong>  
><strong>You were once a friend and father<strong>  
><strong>Then my world was shattered<strong>

**Wishing you were somehow here again**  
><strong>Wishing you were somehow near<strong>  
><strong>Sometimes it seemed if I just dreamed<strong>  
><strong>Somehow you would be here<strong>

**Wishing I could hear your voice again**  
><strong>Knowing that I never would<strong>  
><strong>Dreaming of you won't help me to do<strong>  
><strong>All that you dreamed I could<strong>

**Passing bells and sculpted angels**  
><strong>Cold and monumental<strong>  
><strong>Seem for you the wrong companions<strong>  
><strong>You were warm and gentle<strong>

**Too many years fighting back tears**  
><strong>Why can't the past just die?<strong>

**Wishing you were somehow here again**  
><strong>Knowing we must say goodbye<strong>  
><strong>Try to forgive, teach me to live<strong>  
><strong>Give me the strength to try<strong>

**No more memories, no more silent tears**  
><strong>No more gazing across the wasted years<strong>  
><strong>Help me say goodbye<strong>

I stood in front of a statue with an angel clasping their hands together.

**Help me say goodbye**

I knelt down on the ground and peeled away the dead leaves, vines and their branches, uncovering the stone and unveiling the name.

"Hello, Father. I know it's early this year, but I'm participating in a blading tournament and it's taking place in Moscow in a few weeks. I'm on a team with Kai and some other boys. I know that may sound like a bad idea, but Anivia protects me and I can defent myself. Just like you taught me. I mean, just a few weeks ago I sent five guys to the hospital because they were hitting on me. I know that you think I may need to be more careful but I'm growing up. I'm fourteen going on fifteen."

I sighed before placing the flowers at the base of the angel's feet.

"I have to go now before the cathedral closes...though for me it doesn't really matter. I love you, Father and someday, I hope that I might be able to introduce you to Kai." I kissed my fingers before placing against his engraved name. Grabbing my things, I left the cemetary and headed for the cathedral that was built nearby. The doors were shut but it didn't matter to me. Using the vines, I scaled the wall and went in through a window. Dropping down as silently as I could, I paused as my boots echoed slightly as they made contact with the stone floor. I looked around to make sure no one was around before crossing the floor and came to a stop in front of a tomb.

"Hello, Grandmama. I just came from visiting Father. And like I told him, I kow it's early but there's a beyblade tournament in Moscow that I'm particiapting in with Kai. Anivia,...she tries to tell me things about you but it's hard because I'm still young, though I'm going to be fifteen in a couple months. I wish you were here with me and Anivia, for we both miss you very much."

I placed the flowers on the tomb by her name and then pulled out Anivia.

"We've been through so much together and I wish you could see all that's happening to me. Being on a team, possibly having my first crush, or so Anivia says. I hate to have to leave so soon but unfortunatly the team I'm on will start to wonder where I am...or at least that's what I hope would happen." I did the same kiss gesture that I did to my Father's grave to hers. "I love you Grandmama, and I miss you very much."

I picked up my things and this time unlocked the cathedral door to use as an exit and went out quickly and quietly. The hotel was a short walk from the cathedral so I walked there while enjoying the scenery. When I got to the hotel, it was after nine and I got the spare room key from the receptionist before heading upstairs. When I opened the door, everyone was asleep except for Kai. He was standing outside on the balcony. I changed quickly and walked outside, clutching my jacket around me.

"Where've you been?" He asked, not even looking at me.

"Out."

"Obviously, but I mean where. You dissapear every year for a few days without telling me where and I don't hear from you until you come back. Now I realize you've been coming back here to Russia, why?"

I was hesitant to answer.

"I don't think I can tell you yet, Kai. Mainly because I'm not really ready to accept the whole truth yet." Kai seemed like he was going to protest. "Please Kai, I beg of you not to ask me anything else about it." I pleaded with him, desperate for him no to ask me anymore questions about where I was.

He must have read my expression and that I was truly serious about what I said because I never, and I mean NEVER, beg.

"Alright Ashe...I trust you. I always have." He held me close as the wind blew gently. "Do you...think you'll ever tell me...where you were...I mean where you go every year."

"Yes...someday I'll tell you Kai, I promise. Just not today." I whispered as he released me.

"Come on, it's getting late." So we went inside and climbed into our beds.

* * *

><p>I trained as hard as I could over the next week. I'd leave early in the morning and come back late at night. The others didn't seem to mind but then again, I left before they'd wake up and came back after they fell asleep. The day we were supposed to get to the subway, we ended up missing it by an hour because Tyson didn't set his watch to the right time. So after I gave him the worst ass kicking I could, without killing him, we went back to the hotel where Tyson's punishment was to sleep on the floor and eat only one meal a day. There were only two weeks left until the World Championships and we had to spend an extra week in St. Petersburg. I trained even harder and went to visit Father and Grandmama one more time before we left. This time, Dizzi kept time for us and we got to the subway on time and made it to Moscow withing a few hours.<p>

"I don't have any battling data on the hosting team, though. They're called the Demolition Boys and they're undefeated. They're quite known for showing their opponents no mercy and destroying them with brutality." Kenny explained as he read over some articles.

"Brutality and no mercy? Sounds like someone else we know, eh Ashe?" I growled at Tyson's remark but didn't respond any further.

However when Tyson stepped off the subway, he forgot to put on his coat and Moscow was even colder that St. Petersburg, so when he stepped off he started shaking so Kenny tossed him a BBA coat. We started to head for the hotel when Tyson started complaining.

"Does anyone know where we're going?"

"We should be getting there soon." But I noticed Kenny was having trouble reading the map so I took it from him and had a look.

"Let's see." I looked at the street sign and then back at the map as Kai came up behind me. "This way." I directed as I headed down an all too familiar street.

"Ashe, are you sure you know where your going?" Tyson complained again.

"Yes, now shut up and follow me or I'll leave you behind to freeze." I said, not even bothering to turn around.

"Geeze, are we even going to get some indication as to where the hell we are?" But Tyson's complaining recieved no answer.

As we continued down the street, we passed by a charred house and it caught my attention. I stopped in front of the remains of the wooden gate. The others passed by but only for a second.

"Hey Ashe, what's the hold up?" Max asked.

I didn't answer as I opened the gate and approached the house.

"Uh...why the hell are we standing in front of the remains of a stupid old house that looks like it'll fall over any minute?"

"SILENCE, TYSON!" I ordered harshly with rage and anger. "This isn't just some stupid house...This was...once my home." Everyone had gasped but I didn't turn to see their reactions because it was too obvious.

"Ashe, are you serious?" Ray asked as I placed my hand on the door and gently pushed, the broken door creaking slowly as it opened.

"Stay outside." I ordered coldly as I stepped inside, being wary of where I stepped.

Most of the house was gone due to fire damage combined with years of cold wear and tear. The second story had completely collapsed and the kitchen was gone. Parts of the chimney still stood but there wasn't much. Heading to the fireplace, I tore up the floorboards at the base which revealed a fireproof metal box. I pulled it up into my lap and pulled Anivia from my pocket. There was a special lock on the box that couldn't use a normal key. Instead I placed her bitchip in the slot and turned, opening the box. Inside, there was a note, an old book, and some beyblading parts. Not wanting to keep the others waiting with suspicion, I closed the box and fit it nicely inside my bag before heading out to where the others stood.

"Are you done sight seeing? I'm freezing my nads off out here while you decided to visit some meaningless house that's in shambles so can we please get out of here!" Tyson yelled as I stepped back through the gate.

Struggling to control my anger, and by that I mean resisting the urge to fill Tyson's body up with the lead of my bullets, I walked past the gand with my head bowed so my long hair covered my eyes and hid the anger that was clearly rising without a single word to anyone. I didn't have to look behind me as I heard Tyson crying out in pain from being beaten by whoever. I didn't care who. Better them than me sice my beatings would put him in the hospital without the use of my gun.

As we walked through the dtreets to the hotel, we passed by a park that had multiple dishes for beyblading. There were some kids blading at one of the dishes but their faces were almost void of any expression. One of the blades came soaring out towards us but Tyson caught it. As he tried to offer it back, the kids backed away and ran off.

"Hey, wait!" Tyson tried to call out to them but we were stopped by someone.

"You must be the infamous Bladebreakers. Welcome to Russia." We saw a man dressed in a parka with purple hair. "My name is Boris Balkov and I'm the head chairman for the tournament. Tell me, are you hungry?" The response he got was Tyson's stomach growling. "Haha, I guess that answers my question. Come, lunch is on me."

Everyone seemed to be excited about Russian food but something was bugging me.

'That man, Boris. He seems familiar to me But...I...I just don't remember where.'

My suspicions about familiarity only seemed to grow as Boris led us around a place called Balkov Abbey after lunch, where they took in young bladers to teach them.

"You'll notice that we don't have any female bladers." He said glancing at me. "We have nothing against the female gender, it's just that there are hardly any female bladers in Russia or they don't express as much interest in the sport as out male candidates."

'Sure.' Tyson didn't seem to care at what Boris was saying.

"Yeah, yeah whatever, who cares about that. How about a battle?"

Boris seemed deighted at the idea. He brought us inside and selected a kid named Alexander. The boy seemed hesitant and somewhat afraid to go through with the battle. But Boris leaned down and whispered something in Alexander's ear that seemed to change his mind and he stood at the dish on the opposite side of Tyson.

"You are my enemy and I will destory you." He said in such a monotone that it sounded almost...rehearsed.

'Or...brainwashed."

ALexander and Tyson launched their blades and they clashed hard, surprising us at the kids sudden strength.

**'This kid doesn't have a bitbeast and yet, he battles with ferocity as if he does.'**

_'Yes, Mistress. It seems he has been 'trained' well'._

**'But is it really training or is it something else...This place seems so familiar to me...but...'**

As the battle with Alexander progressed, Tyson seemed to be struggling...until Kai and Max both reminded him of the Qualifier Tournament when Max's blade did a reverse spin.

"GO DRAGOON!" Dragoon flew into the air and landed on top of Alexander's and stopping it.

With his blade knocked out, Alexander's face contorted to fear.

Absolute fear.

He looked up at Boris with shaking eyes as the doors opened where two guards came in.

"You are not fit to be a blader." Boris stated angerly as he stomped on Alexander's blade, smashing it to pieces.

"No! Please! I promise I won't lose again!" The guards ignored the boy's desperate pleas as they dragged him away from clutching Boris's coat.

"Remove him from my sight." The man ordered.

As I watched the kid go, I saw more familiarity flash in my mind. Instead of seeing Alexander, I saw another boy pleading with Boris. Tyson tried to stop them but he was totally ignored.

"What do you expect me to do about this?" He yelled at Boris who just looked back at us as both Kai and I surprisingly seemed to have the answer.

"Just forget it." Kat stated.

"And pretend as if it never happened." I finished.

Tyson looked at us like we had both completely lost out minds.

"Are you two fucking serious?"

We didn't respond.

"This is how we do things in our country...now I think it best if you leave now." I grabbed my bag and slung it over my shoulder.

"Don't have to tell me twice. I'm out." I headed for the door but not before I heard Boris say something.

_**"I hope we meet again soon, Ashe Taro."**_

Although I didn't stop, the way he said my name sent horribly familiar shivers down my spine. I pulled out the map I took from Kenny earlier and looked to see where we were supposed to go. It wasn't far and we made it there in no time. Kai and I claimed a bed and I sat down, pulling out the metal box I obtained from the ruins of my home.

"Hey Ashe, whatcha got there?" Tyson came up and pounced on the bed, staring at the box that I clutched to my chest.

"Back off, Tyson. This is my buisness, not yours." I stated harshly, glaring at him as he tried to take to box from my hands.

"Aw, come on. Let's see it." Getting angrier by the second, I elbowed him in the gut before punching him in the face.

"I said, back off!" I growled as I pulled out my gun and held it against his head.

"If you ever disreguard what I say again, you'll be the sorryiest boy on the planet." I hissed as I holstered my gun and sat back down on the bed, keeping the box close.

I ignored the others, even Kai, for the rest of the night.

I woke up in the middle of the night to a nightmare I had about that damn abbey. Panting and dripping with sweat, I got up and splashed some cold water on my face.

'Why do I keep thinking about that damn place. It's a friggin' puzzle and I lost some memory pieces. I want answers, now.'

I changed my clothes and grabbed my things and left a note beside Kai.

'Kai, there's something about that abbey that keeps distracting me and I don't like it. I felt like I was hit with blasts from the past and it's driving me crazy. I'm sorry to up and leave like this but I want answers and I want them now. I'll be back soon. -Ashe'

It was after three in the morning as I approached to shadows of the abbey that seemed to be heavily guarded. But it proved no problem getting in. I scaled the wall's and went in through the window, the guards taking no notice that they were being infultrated right under their noses. Cautiously I peered around the different corners and rooms to see what the hell was going on. In one room, I saw animals in giant tubes, on life support wires.

**'Anivia, can we do anything to help them? I hate seeing these animals like this.'** I thought, placing my hand on the tube that contained a wolf.

_'Unfortunatly, we can't Mistress. There's the strongest possibility that we might kill them.'_

**'But their already being killed by having their life spirits drained.'**

Not wanting to stay in the room any longer, I turned and bolted.

'That's just too cruel.'

Other rooms I came to showed numberous kids training, being molded into the perfect beyblading machinest.

'J-just like...me...'

I started shaking so I ran again. I rounded some corners before stopping, leaning against the stone wall to catch my breath.

'I'm afraid...of this place...but...why...why am I so afraid?'

After I caught my breath, I continued my exploration but as I rounded more corners I heard voices. Grabbing my gun and readying it, I quietly snuck against the wall as I rounded the next corner to see.

"Kai?" Kas was on his knees, shaking scared.

Frantic, I ran to him.

"Kai! Kai!" I knelt down and took his face gently in my hands, dropping my gun beside me as I forced him to look me in the eyes. "Kai, look at me." I whispered softly to him.

"A-Ashe."

He shakily brought his hands up to mine.

"I'm here, Kai...It's ok."

'What's gotten him so shaken? I've never seen him like this before.'

An all too familiar voice broke my thoughts.

"Ashe Taro, I knew it wouldn't be long before you'd be back." As I slowly turned, fear shook through my body like a violent tremor.

"Boris!" He had the hood of his coat down and wore those signature goggles I always felt were undressing me.

"It's good to have you both back." He chuckled evily.

"W-we grew up here, A-Ashe." Kai said was I looked back at him.

I couldn't think straight and grabbed my head in pain as memories of the Abbey came flooding back.

"Ashe!" Kai called to me as I cried out, remembering the harsh training, the punishments, the pain.

It was all so clear.

"I - I remember, Kai. I-" Kai held me close as I started shaking violently.

"It's time for the two of you to return to the team that made you." Boris told us but I stopped listening to that, I was shaking so much.

_'Mistress, you must calm down of you'll hypervenialte and pass out. I am here with you as well as Master Kai. You are not alone...Please, take deep breaths and think about something else. The Secret Spot maybe...'_

My whole body started to go cold from her soothingness and I clung closer to Kai who held me tighter.

"We're leaving." He whispered to me.

Quickly, he thrust my gun back into my hand as we stood up fast and ran, ran away from Boris and his laughter that echoed down the stone hallway. Kai kept a tight grasp on me hand as we rounded more corners.

"Kai, where are we going?"

"We're getting out of here, Ashe." he answered and I let him lead me.

We came to a hallway that had dozens of mechanical blade launchers alone the walls, all aimed for us. Kai dropped my hand as we grabbed out blades adn launched, running as the launches were destroyed. Our blades came back to us when they were done. We ran more and more, but it was like an endless maze and I didn't feel like we were any closer to the cheese. We dodged more launchers and lazers as we ran smack into Boris again. I held my launcher in one hand and had my other hand ready to grab my gun if needed.

"Come, I want to show you both something." He indicated for us to follow him, but we were hesitant to, though in the end we didn't have much choice.

It was either wander aimlessly or follow him. He led us past various rooms that I definatly started to remember, though I really didn't want to. He finally stopped in front of an unfamiliar door.

"This room is what hold BIOVAULT's pride and joy." He unlocked to door and Kai and I stepped inside.

There were multiple black chains hanging from the ceiling and walls all locked together in one spot in the center of the room around something...something...eerie.

"Black Dranzer." I whispered as Kai and I approached the captive blade. "I remember you using this when we were young, Kai." I whispered again, slowly reaching out for the dark blade.

_'Mistress, don't touch that blade!' _Anivia warned me and I heeded the warning, immediatly retraching my hand.

"Yes, I remember it's overwhelming power coursing through me. It was...unbelieveable...and addicting." Kai said while Boris stepped up to us from behind.

"After your little accident years ago Kai, that seemed to have surpressed both of your memories, we've tried to find someone else who could handle the blade's power. But alas, every single candidate failed. Kai, if you come back to BIOVAULT then you shall once again be in control of Black Dranzer. You shall weild it's might to your heart's content." Boris pressed a button which unlocked the chains from the warped blade.

I felt the blade pulse with evil as if it was ready to unleash everything at whatever came near.

"What about Ashe? I won't abandon her like that." Kai said, turning to me.

Boris looked over at me as well.

"Ashe, I can sense that you feel unwanted and unappreciated by your...um...team. I saw how Tyson disreguarded you as a female blader yesterday. If you came back, you'll be in a place where your superior skills shall be most appreciated. You'll have a home and a place where you shall feel like I know you want to belong...So...what do you two say?" He asked asn I couldn't believe the first word that came out of my mouth.

"Yes."

'Holy shit, where did that come from?'

"I agree as well." Kai added as he picked up Black Dranzer.

"Excellent. BIOVAULT welcomes you both back. Come. I'm sure there are those who will want to see you." Boris smirked as Kais clasped my hand with is free one and together we walked through the tunnnels of the abbey to a training room that reminded me of the one Robert let me use.

There were four boys who's names flashed through my mind as I remembered their faces. Brian, Ian, Spencer, and Tala.

"Boys, I'd like you to meet your new teammates. I'll leave you to get...reaquainted with one another." Boris left the room as my gaze glanced over all four boys.

"Tala."

Tala was almost like an older brother to me when we were little...in fact all the boys were.

"Ashe, Kai. Good to have you both back." Subconciously, I dropped Kai's hand and rant to Tala's arms who held me back. "I've missed you all these years. You've really grown, haven't you?" He stated while looking down at me.

Tala always was the tallest of us, even when we were little. Kai came up behind me and stared at Tala with his signature stare that could be almost near impossible to decifier.

"Tala."

"Kai."

The shook hands before the other boys approached us.

"Hey Tala, don't hog our little Ice Princess." Brian said as he pulled me out of Tala's grasp and into his own.

I smirked at the nicname he and the others had given me when we were younger. Ian and Spencer gave me hugs as well before Boris came back.

"I think it's time for you all to rest for tomorrow. Training resumes as usual, no exceptions. Ashe, Kai, if you'll follow me then I'll show you to your rooms where you'll be staying."

Grabbing my bag, we followed Boris down only a single hallway and stood in front of a wooden door.

"Ashe, this will be your room. Kai, yours is across the way." He indicated to the door behind him. "Now I suggest you get some sleep. Training starts tomorrow at six sharp. Goodnight to both of you...and...welcome home." He gave us a smug look before dissapearing down the hall.

Kai and I glanced at each other before I turned to my room.

"Ashe?..."

"Yeah, Kai?"

"I-uh-n-never mind. I guess I'll see you in the morning."

"Uh-yeah. I guess so. Sleep well, Kai." I whispered as I went inside without another word or glance.

It was a basic room with a bed, bathroom, dresser and light.

_'Mistress, are you sure you'll be ok here? I'm worried about Master Kai as well.'_

**'I'm not entirely sure about being here either, but at least I'm with old friends who appreciate me for what I do. I don't think Kai would've come back is Boris hadn't gone and pulled out Black Dranzer. It gave us trouble when we were kids and it's sure to give us hell now, but I'll stand by Kai no matter what happends.'**

I sat down on the bed and pulled out the black box. Using Anivia's bitchip I opened it again and pulled out the contents. There was a piece of paper inside with my name on it in fancy calligraphy. I opened it to see it was my Grandmama's writing.

_**'My darling Great Granddaughter, **_

_**By the time you read this, I will be long gone and I miss you. Anivia has promised me that she will always care for you and be with you in your time of need. You'll know by now how important the blood that runs in your veins is, but also how dangerous it is as well. If your Father has given you this box, then it means he feels your soon going to be ready to take on your duty as the last of our bloodline. I can't tell you when that's going to happen because I don't know when you'll be reading this letter. There are things that I've left you as well as my brother, though he died long before you were born. In order to claim what's rightfully yours, you'll need to follow the instructions enclosed to the letter. Know that I am always watching over you and I love you very much.**_

As I read through the list of instructions, it seemed clear that I was going to need help.

_'Perhaps you should consider tell Master Kai about this. I know he'll understand and he'll be able to help you. But you don't have to worry about all this right now, little one. Get some rest for your training. Things will get better in the long run.'_ Anivia assured me and knowing she had a point, I changed for bed and fell asleep to 'Forever Yours'.

Wishing You Were Somehow Here - The Phantom of the Opera

Forever Yours - Nightwish


	17. A Chant Of Darkness

DISCLAIMER: I OWN NOTHING OF BEYBLADE! I ONLY REALLY OWN JUST ASHE HERSELF. HER BITBEAST ANIVIA, ISN'T MINE. SHE WAS FIRST AND FORMOST CREATED AS A CHARACTER TO PLAY IN THE GAME LEAGUE OF LEGENDS BUT SHE'S JUST SO AWESOME BUT AGAIN I DON'T CLAIM HER AS MY OWN! I'M TRYING TO NOT COPY THE DIALOGUE FROM BEYBLADE BUT I'M ALSO TRYING TO MAKE SURE THAT I DON'T MAKE KAI SOUND LIKE AN IDIOT

My body woke itself up for training at four a.m. so I readied myself and headed to the training room where I had total privacy...well some privacy since I figured there were camera's hidden around so instead I just set my stuff down and began my training to 'It's the Fear', 'Distrubia', 'Welcome To The Jungle' and 'Witch's Ghost'. I was in the middle of my trigger releases on my left hand to 'Things You See In A Graveyard' when I felt a hand on my shoulder. My reflexes kicked in and I flipped the person over my shoulder and straddled them with my gun to their head. It was Tala.

"Tala, what the hell are you doing? Didn't you learn not to do that when we were younger?" I hissed as I got off him and help haul him to his feet.

"Yeah, excet when we were little, you'd just turn around and either punch or kick. Sometimes both but you never flipped me nor did you hold a gun to my head."

"Things change, Tala." I growled as I took a drink before looking at the clock.

'Five fourty-five.'

"Just warn Brian, Ian and Spencer before I unintentionally put a bullet into one of their head." I warned as I started my music again and went over to the punching bag where I completed one-hundred punches before I was interrupted again.

"Ashe."

"Am I ever going to actually complete my training or am I going to keep gettin interrupted?" I yelled in frustration as the door opened and in came the others since it was six. "Boris, I know for a damn fact that you're listening so I want no more interruptions during my training, got it!" I shouted into the room and continued my punches.

Three-hundred more and I switched to kicks. After four-hundred of those, it was after seven and we had to head for the Tournament around eleven for the special exhibition matches. The AllStarz would be there along with the White Tigers. I skipped running and went straight to weight lifting. Grabbing the fifty pound dumbells, I did four-hundred reps per arm with 'Avantasia', 'Crownless', 'Ciaran's Well', and 'Sign of the Cross' blashing in my ears. Tala agreed to spot me as I bench-pressed fifty pounds, four-hundred times to 'Glory of Rome', 'Come Cover Me', 'Superbeast', 'Earth Wind Fire and Air', and 'Wait and See'. By the time I finished another set of trigger releases, it was a little after ten.

"Alright, I'll be back in twenty minutes."

I grabbed my things and returned to my room where I showered, changed and headed back to the training room where I saw Kai sitting on the bench press bench, holding Black Dranzer.

"Kai." He looked up at me and smiled.

"Are you ready? You know that we'll be going up against 'them' and that Black Dranzer will take their bitbeasts."

"I know and I don't care." I stated simply and I sat down beside him. That was a partial lie..."I'll stand by your side no matter what we do. Anivia will be with us as well." I finished, pulling her out of my pocket and held her in my hand. I looked up again when Kai placed his hand over mine.

"Thank you, Ashe. For all that you've done for me. You've stuck by me through all there years and I will never forget that."

We were staring into each other's eyes and just like back at Robert's castle, I could feel our faces moving closer...and closer...and then...

"Ashe! Kai! Let's go or we're going to be late!" Spencer called from the doorway.

Reluctantly I broke my gaze from Kai's and followed the rest of the boy's and Boris through the elaborate tunnels of the Abbey until we came to the outside where a bus stood waiting for us. The ride was silent and short and when we got off we headed for the Demolition Boy's locker room. I didn't care about being on a team where their name included the word 'Boy's'. As we prepared to head out, Boris came in.

"First, you'll go up against the All Starz. Ian will start us off, then Talal will go second. And as a surprise to all Kai and Ashe will battle the entire team as our secret weapon. Failure is not an option, is that understood?"

"Yes, sir." We all replied simultaniously as we headed out.

Kai and I stood in the shadows of the hallway as the other boys entered the ring.

"And we are pleased to introduce the host team, the Demolition Boys! Here they'll have a special exhibition matches against teams invited personally by Mr Voltaire himslef. First up, is the team of America, the AllStarz!" DJ announced and the crowd cheered for both teams.

I saw the smug look on Emily's face and the cocky one on Michael's.

"Kai, when we battle the team, I want dibs on destroying Emily and Michael." I growled as I clenched my fists.

"No, Ashe. I want revenge on Michael for what he did to you. You already got yours by punching him. I want my own." Kai stated while growling lowly.

"Very well. We'll each take out two bladers, agreed?"

"Done." He said simply as we watched the battle between Ian and Steve.

Steve tried going for a full frontal assalt but Ian dodged and took him out from behind, sending him out of the ring. Steve looked shocked as did the rest of his team while Eddie stepped up. Tale went out next and as soon as the blades came in contact with the dish, Tala sent Eddie's blade flying. The entire stadium seemed shocked at the sudden outcome while Tala walked away smirking at the victory.

"And it look like we have a change of plans for the third round. The AllStarz will go up against the Demolition Boy's Secret Weapon. Let's bring them out!" Kai and I headed out to the ring, side by side where we were greeted by shocks, gasps and every other gesture of surprise there was.

"Kai and Ashe! Well this is certainly a shock, but it's still a two versus four match."

Kai and I readied outselves as the rest of the AllStarz gathered on their side of the dish.

"I hope you're ready to take down more data, Emily because you're going to need it." I sneered coldly as I held my launcher ready with a smile on my face as Kai loaded Black Dranzer.

"Bladers, ready! 3...2...1...LET IT RIP!"

The six of us launched and there was chaos...but only for a short while.

"Anivia, show no mercy! Attack with Frost Bite!"

Dodging the attacks from Steve and Michael, Anivia rose into the air off the side of the dish and came down with such force on Eddie's blade that it was demolished immediatly, way worse than what happened to Robert's blade. With thier teammate's blade gone, the remaining three tried to box me and Kai in but we only smired at their feeble plan.

"You guys are nothing compared to our power. We're stronger than you'll ever be!" Kai teased as Black Dranzer attacked and destroyed Steve in an instant.

Now it was just Emily and Michael.

"You're mine now, Emily and your took weak to stop me! Anivia, destory her!" I actually cackled as Anivia increased her speed and ran up the side of the dish, but instead of coming straight down, she flipped over Emily's blade and struck her harshly from behind sending her into the air.

"Finish this." I ordered as she attacked Emily's blade from all angels, each hit cracking the balde until it was no more.

Anivia landed gracefully into the dish beside her two kills as Kai finished off Michael. She came back to my hand as Black Dranzer glowed, coaxing the AllStarz's bitbeasts from their chips and dragging them into his own. When he had all four, he returned to Kai's hand who grinned at what he held.

"I am the sole guardian of their power! Gaze upon the world's most powerful blade!" He called into the stadium, confidently and triumphantly.

"Let's go, Kai. We'll give the NoStarz time to weep in sorrow at their humiliating defeat. Besides, the dish has to be cleaned from all the trash." I spat as Emily fell to her knees.

"How? How can you be so cruel! I knew you were a bitch, but I didn't think even you could be this heartless!" She screamed at me which caused me to stop in my tracks.

"Ashe..." Kai warned as I turned around to face her.

"I do have a heart Emily, but it's been encased in ice as it has been for a very long time. I put the rest of my heart into blading and the connection I have with my bitbeast is something your little science data will never be able to explain! I may be a bitch, but I hold my heart in my hands." I stated coldly as I turned again so Kai and I went and sat on the bench with the other boys.

"Well done, you two. You've both pleased BIOVAULT emensley." Boris complimented but I said nothing.

Instead I pulled out my I-POD and blasted 'Serpents In Paradise', and 'Gethsemane' while the AllStarz cleared out of the ring, dragging their shame along the ground behind them like a train on a wedding dress. As 'Dragula' finished playing, the White Tiger team entered where the AllStarz left, angry and pissed off looks covered their faces.

"Kai, you take 'em. I've had my fill of destruction for today." I sad casually, pausing my music.

I didn't have anything against them so I wasn't going to play any part in what would happen to them.

"Alright." Kai answered and he headed to the ring while I unpaused my music and folded my arms.

During Kai's battles, I went through 'Hex Girls', 'Sacrament of Wilderness' and 'Slaying the Dreamer' before he bacme back with a triumphant smirk.

"Let's go back already. I want to train." I stated while in the same sense was practically complaining too.

Boris seemed to agree as he loaded us back on the bus and he headed back to the Abbey. Once we got there, I headed straight for the training room and did almost an exact repeat of this morning's training. I was in the middle of my bench presses when I heard my name being called.

"Ashe?...Ashe?...Kai?...You guy's here?"

It was Tyson.

'What the hell is he doing here?' I groaned as I took a drink.

_'Apparently, looking for you and Master Kai, Mistress. What shall you do?'_

**'Find him and kick him out myself.' **I said, grabbing my coat and blade belt before heading down the hallway after Tyson.

I found him staring at kai who was at one point doing 3D simulations.

"Well I guess I came all this way for nothing." I stated aloud as Tyson turned to see me, surprised.

"Ashe, what the hell has gotten into you and Kai? You dissapear without a word to anyone only to show up on the enemy's team and now you're stealing bitbeasts? What's with all the madness?" Tyson was fuming so badly, I think I saw smoke come out his ears.

But I didn't answer as I walked past him to Kai.

"What we do now is none of your buisness, Tyson. Thing are never going to be what they were, so leave." Kai ordered as I leaned against the wall. "But before you go, take this." He reached into his pocket and pulled something out before tossing it to Tyson.

It was Dranzer.

"I no longer have any use for him. He's weak compared to Black Dranzer and he'll only just get in the way."

Without another word, Kai left the room out the other door beside me. I gave Tyson one last look before following in the same direction but instead headed for my room.

**'I don't understand why he did that, Anivia. Dranzer's been with Kai since we were young and now he's useless? That's...not right...Then again, neither is taking bitbeasts but...just abandoning Dranzer like that?'**

_'Unfortuantly Mistress, his mind has been corrupted by Black Dranzer. The beast itself is of pure evil, ready to consume a young person's mind with dark and corrupted thoughts. It's why I warned you not to touch the blade. I'm afraid that if Master Kai continues to weild Black Dranzer, he may hurt you, Mistress and I cannot bear that nor will I allow it to happen. Please use caution. Black Dranzer's evil is like a bipolar child. One minute he's fine, the next he's blowing up because some little thing set him off. The same goes for the weilder of the blade. Master Kai may seem calm now but one word could set him off into a horrible rage.'_

**'I'll be sure to keep that in mind.'**

When I looked at the clock, it was seven thirty. I grabbed some fruit that I kept in my bag and ate that before taking a nice relaxing shower. When I emerged it was almost nine, yet there was a knock on my door. I held my gun behind me as I opened the door to reveal Kai.

"We're going to Lake Baikal tomorrow to beat the Bladebreakers. I've already sent a message to them that they'll recieve in the morning." He stated simply.

"We as in you and me 'we', or we as in the Demolition Boy's are coming too?"

"It's just you and me. If Tyson's answers as to why we left, then he's going to get them. ALong with the worst ass kicking he's ever recieved." He turned and went back to his room.

I would've stopped him but I remembered what Anivia told me and decided against it. So instead I shut my own door and crawled beneath the covers, falling asleep to 'God Help The Outcasts'.

**OK THERE'S ONLY 3 CHAPTERS REMAINING IN THIS STORY BEFORE THE SEQUEL COMES OUT! MAJOR DRAMA AND FLUFF IN THE CHAPTERS TO COME! PROMISE!**

It's The Fear - Within Temptation

Disturbia - Rihanna

Welcome To The Jungle - Guns N Roses

Witch's Ghost - Scooby-Doo and the Witch's Ghost

Things You See In A Graveyard - Repo The Genetic Opera

Avantasia - Avantasia

Crownless - Nightwish

Ciaran's Well - Tarja Turunen

Sign Of The Cross - Avantasia

Glory Of Rome - Avantasia

Come Cover Me - Nightwish

Superbeast - Rob Zombie

Earth Wind Fire and Air - Scooby-Doo and the Witch's Ghost

Wait and See - Utada Hikaru

Serpent's In Paradise - Avantasia

Gethsemene - Nightwish

Dragula - Rob Zombie

Hex Girl's - Scooby-Doo and the Witch's Ghost

Sacrament of Wilderness - Nightwish

Slaying the Dreamer - Nightwish

God Help the Outcasts - The Hunckback of Notre Dame


	18. Around The CornerA Vanished Friend

DISCLAIMER: I OWN NOTHING OF BEYBLADE! I ONLY REALLY OWN JUST ASHE HERSELF. HER BITBEAST ANIVIA, ISN'T MINE. SHE WAS FIRST AND FORMOST CREATED AS A CHARACTER TO PLAY IN THE GAME LEAGUE OF LEGENDS BUT SHE'S JUST SO AWESOME BUT AGAIN I DON'T CLAIM HER AS MY OWN! I'M TRYING TO NOT COPY THE DIALOGUE FROM BEYBLADE BUT I'M ALSO TRYING TO MAKE SURE THAT I DON'T MAKE KAI SOUND LIKE AN IDIOT

OK, THIS HAS TO BE ONE OF THE MOST INTENSE CHAPTERS THAT I'VE WRITTEN THIS WHOLE SEASON. MAJOR REALIZATIONS HAPPENING ALONG WITH MAJOR FLUFF SO ENJOY!

I awoke for trainins at normal time but Kai pulled me away from it at nine.

"Go get ready and meet me out front in half an hour." He said/ordered.

Not wanting him to go off, I did as he said and was out there in twenty minutes. The helicoptor ride was two hours long as we went to the practical middle of the lake so I passed the time with 'Living Dead Girl', 'Ocean Soul', 'Resonant Chamber', different 'Foamy' mp3's, 'Chase The Morning', 'Passion' and 'There Will Come A Day'. When we landed, the Bladebreakers hadn't arrived.

"Come back in an hour. They sould be here soon and this shouldn't take long." Kai told the pilot.

"Yes, sir."

After the helicopter took off, it was another thirty minutes before the Bladebreakers finally arrived.

"Well it's about damn time." I stated aloud as they stepped off their own BBA helicopter.

"Why did you bring us all the way out here you guys?" Ray asked.

"Because I learned something while being a...Bladebreaker." Kai answered, saying the team name like he was going to throw up from being poisoned. "In order to become the best, one must beat the best and since Tyson's supposed to be the Regional Champ, then all I have to do is crush him and the rest of your pathetic little group." He sneered while I just yawned, bored out of my friggin' mind.

"And do you feel that same way, Ashe?" Ray asked me.

"You know why I'm not a part of your little team anymore? It's because I never was in the first place. I wasn't regarded as an actual member, I was the 'substitute' or as Tyson so blantly called me, 'Cheerleader'." I snarled as Tyson looked away in shame. "And what about the first night we spent at Robert's castle? I defeated Robert easily but you never took any notice about it. You just talked about how huge Anivia and then went completely over my head in challenging the Majestics as a team. I battled Robert for two reasons. One: Because I couldn't fight Johnny to avenge what he did to Kai and Two: So that I could show that the Bladebreakers could overcome any opponent and that we shouldn't be underestimated. But apparently, it meant nothing to you all just like I don't mean anything to you. When you were deciding who was going to battle, I expected Tyson and Kai to want a rematch but I wasn't even considered. I stood there in the locker and was regarded as if I was invisible. That's why I'm against you, because I'm finally on a team who actually acknowledges me and makes me feel like I belong." I vented, taking a few breaths afterwards while the boys just looked at me in sadness.

"I see that you're missing a member, where's little Maxie?" Kai teased as Kenny stepped up with his blade.

"He'll be here but for now, you'll just have to settle for us. I'll go first." He readied his launcher as I took a few steps back to give them room.

"Let's just get this over with." Kai said while loading Black Dranzer.

It didn't take long after they launched for Kai to beat Kenny's blade. Ray launched next and the huge collision created a force that started to crack the ice. But Black Dranzer knocked Driger back to Ray easily so now it was just down to Tyson and Kai. The ice kept cracking more and more as Tyson was also easily defeated.

"Kai, Ashe, please you don't have to do this. You can still come back with us. Ashe, we've always thought of you as a part of the team but you seemed so distant that it was hard to reach out to you." Ray tried to reason but was interrupted by an overhead plane.

"BEYBLADER INCOMING!"

It seemed that Max decided to show up after all, parachuting down while launching Draciel. The mighty turtle clashed with the black phoenix and Draciel's defense actually seemed to be pushing Black Dranzer back.

"How-what's going ton?" Kai stuttered, surprised at what was happening.

"What a minute...that...that's one of my blade design's for Draciel." My eyes widened as I recognized the battle patterns.

"You see, if you wern't a part of the team then do you think we'd even consider using your designs? Max was the first to suggest it actually." Tyson defended.

"Yeah, that's right. After you did those modifications for Draciel against my battle with Michael, they popped into my head. They're amazing, Ashe."

My mind began reeling as Draciel continued to defend against Black Dranzer's assult, causing the ice to crack more and more.

"Hey Kai, there's somene here who wants to say hi." Tyson loaded and launched another blade next to Draciel.

"It's Dranzer!" I realized and as if on cue, Dranzer emerged and looked down at Kai.

"Oooooo, he looks pissed!" Tyson said aloud as he caught sight of the bitbeasts glare.

It really was a scary look. Together with the combined force of both Dranzer and Draciel, Black Dranzer was defeated.

"But...how...I don't understand..." Kai couldn't seemd to fully realize that he had lost and frankly, I too was at a loss for words.

Black Dranzer was supposed to be the strongest bitbeast in the world.

"Kai, you don't have to be in possession of the most powerful blade in order to be the best. You need the love and support of friends and the respect of your bitbeast." Max explained.

"Ashe, you may be an even bigger mystery than Kai, but you're still our friend and we all care about you." Ray added to Max's bit.

_'Mistress, what they say is true and full of sincerity. They mean what they say and you know it.'_

Before I could even respond to anyone, the ice finally broke under all the pressure. Kai was now standing on a wobbly glacier that looked like it could flip at any moment.

"Kai, hang on!" Tyson called as they stepped away from the cracks and tried approaching him from another angle. "Take my hand!" He reached out to Kai with the others behind him to give support.

"I-I don't think I can. I've dont terrible things." Kai looked away as the water started to rise over the glacier and covered his ankles.

"Kai, don't worry about it. Please, just take my hand!"

And for the first time in so many years, I saw a single tear fall from Kai's eye.

"You guys, I'm so sorry." He apologizes and reached out for Tyson and the oters but he couldn't reach.

There was too much distance between them and I knew what had to be done. I unhooked my blading/gun belt and dropped it to the ground and jumped towards Kai, pushing him to the others who grabbed his arm and hauled him up. As the glacier capsized under me, the last thing I saw was Kai's horrified face as he reached for me.

"ASHE, NOOOO!"

Normal POV

As Ashe pushed Kai towards the Bladebreakers, the glacier flipped and she sank into the water. It only took Kai a few miliseconds to realize what happened before lundging back to the hole, reaching for her.

"ASHE, NOOOO!" He cried but Tyson and Max held him back from jumping in the water as Ray was able to grasp her hand before it went under.

He pulled with all he could until she started to slowly rise, unconcious. Max ran and grabbed her belt while Ray pulled her out completely. All of the guys took off their coats and wrapped her up in them.

"We have to get her back to the hotel and get her warm." Ray said as Kai continued to stare in sorrow at his best friend who was as pale as a ghost with her lips turning blue.

'Why did she do this? Why is she always saing me?' He screamed mentally as the helecopter that brought him there came back down, the BBA's helecopter not far behind.

He ran to get some blankets that were kept on board and wrapped Ashe up in those.

"Please be ok, Ashe...You guys have to take her back to the hotel and phone for a doctor. She absolutly hates hostitals. I'll come back...but there's something I have to do first." Ray seemed to understand.

"It's okay, Kai. You go and do what you have to do. We'll take care of her, I promise."

Kai nodded and placed a hand against Ashe's cold cheek before climbing into the helicopter and taking off back to the Abbey where he was greeted by a pissed off Boris.

"And just where have you been? You and Ashe have both missed training and you know the upcoming match with the Bladebreakers is an important one." Kai just ignored the purple haired man that he and Ashe had both once feared.

He headed to her room first and gathered everything she had in the bag she brought before heading to his own room and grabbed his own things. Then he tracked down Boris who was in one of the labs.

"Kai, what do you think you're doing? Get back to the training room, now!"

"Sorry Boris, but I'm not taking orders from you anymore and neither is Ashe. We're done. But I would like to give you a little present from the both of us before I go." He loaded Black Dranzer and launched at all the machines, breaking and trashing them. "See ya!" And he took off towards the exit.

He ran through the streets of Moscow towards the hotel wehre he saw a guy in a white coat carrying a black bag walking out of the hotel and into a black car.

'Please, let that have been the doctor.' He prayed as he took off faster into the hotel and up to the room. He knocked onthe door and Kenny was the one to open it.

"Kai, come in." Kai slowly stepped throught the door where Tyson greeted him with a smile.

"Hiya, bud." Kai set the bags down off to the side and asked the question he'd been dreading.

"How's Ashe?"

Tyson's smile dropped a bit.

"You'll have to ask Ray. I couldn't understand all that doctor mumbo jumbo stuff." Tyson said while Kenny facepalmed.

Max led Kai over to the bed where he and Ashe had shared a few nights ago. Ray sat at her side, placing a cloth over her forehead. She lay on her back, tucked beneath the covers sweating and panting. As Ray saw Kai approach, he stood.

"According to the doctor, she'll recover but it'll be a while. She's lucky we pulled her out when we did or...she might not have made it. She's got a high fever and cough, though she has been asking about you so you better do something before she gets up and tried to start looking for you on her own." He gave Kai a small smile before moving.

"Thank you, Ray." Kai whispered and he took Ray's place on the bed.

"Tyson, can you go get some more ice from the machines while I take Ashe's coat and gloves down to the hotel's drycleaners?" Ray asked as he gathered the items in his arms that had to be taken off.

"Yeah and I'm gonna head down to the kitchen to see if I can find some soup." Kenny stated while Max opened up Ashe's bag and grabbed the brown bag of tea that Robert had given her.

"Sounds good, Cheif. I'll go with you and see if they'll brew some of this tea for her, too."

So all four boys headed out, leaving Kai alone with Ashe as he grasped her hand gently.

"Oh Ashe, I'm so sorry...This is all my fault." He whispered as he rewet the cloth and dabbed her cheeks gently.

"It's not...your fault...Kai. Stop...blaming...yourself." She rasped with a cough as she opened her eyes and gave Kai's hand a weak squeeze. "You...should know...by now...that...my body...does stupid shit." She coughed again a few more times.

"But, if it wasn't for me, you wouldn't by lying here so sick...It's always me who does the stupid things but your always the one who get's the short end of the deal. You're always saving my life or taking hits that should've been for me." He started shaking a bit but stopped when Ashe squeezed his hand a little harder.

"Kai, your my...best friend and...being reckless is in my nature...Please, stop beating...yourself up about what...happens to me...or I'll have to...beat it out...of you myself." She weakly joked as she smiled, coughing again.

Kai gave a small smile and placed the cloth back on her forhead.

"Ashe, please promise me that you won't do something like this again. I don't ever want to see you lying in a bed like this again. You're my best friend too and...I don't want to lose you the way I lost Dranzer." He said sadly, remembering the look Dranzer had when he battled on the lake.

"You know...I can't promise you that...and you won't lose me...You didn't lose Dranzer either." She weakly reached out with her other hand from beneath the covers and placed Dranzer in Kai's hand that she'd been holding since she arrived at the hotel. "He was saddened...that you had...lost your way...but now...you've found it again...and he'll be with you to the end."

She closed his hand around the familiar blade that pulsed with heat.

"How-how do you know all this?"

"Hehe...Anivia told me...She and Dranzer are just...as close with each other...as you and I are."

The two smiled at each other like long lost friends do after being reunited and they stayed that way for almost fifteen minutes before all the boys came back.

"Hey Ashe, how you feelin'?" Tyson asked as he came in with two buckets of ice.

He placed a handful of ice cubes in the bowl of water and put the rest in the freezer of the mini fridge. Ray, Kenny and Max cam in with two carts of food."

"Good news, Ashe. The hotel staff said they'd have your clothes dry and cleaned by later tonight and your other clothes will be sent up in a few hours after they've been washed and dryed." Ray said with a smile.

"Wait, clothes?" Kai questioned and Ashe placed her hand on Kai's.

"Kai, you're not going to...beat anyone up. Ray had to...take my clothes off because they were soaking wet." Kai's cheeks went slightly red.

"So...s-so are you n-n-naked?" he stutteded as Ashe chuckled at his reaction.

"No...I'm still wearing my bra and panties." Kai's cheeks went even redder as Kenny rolled one of the carst over to the bed.

"Do you think you feel well enough for some chicken noodle soup and scented jasmine tea?"

"Kenny, I'm so hungry...I could probably eat as much...as Tyson can." She jested as she struggled to sit up.

Kai immediatly went and grabbed her one of his shirts that he put over her before anyone could really see her black laced bra.

"Gimme a little warning next time you plan on practiaclly flashing the room." he joked softly in her ear as he helped her to sit up against some pillows.

Max served up some soup while Kenny poured some tea. Tyson turned on the tv and they all watched 'Watchmen' while Kai helped Ashe to eat and drink since her body was still very weak. He stayed by her side all night, including when she slept. He moved one of the armchairs over to the bed and slept there so she could have the whole bed to herself. They all slept peacefully that night and Tyson was surprisingly quiet until everyone woke up.

"Hey, Ashe...I-I want to apologize...for all the mean stuff I said...about you being a cheeleader and a nobody. I guess I was just jealous that you seemed to be so powerful without even trying. I didn't mean to make you feel like you wern't a part of the team." Tyson apologized which at first shocked everyone, including Dizzi but what was even more surprising was Ashe accepting his apology.

"I forgive you, Tyson but remember this: if you ever say anything like that again, I will kick your ass so hard, that my foot will come out your nose with your gut attached to it." Everyone laughed at her threat while Tyson chuckled nervously, knowing that she would follow through with her threat.

Ashe's POV

The next few days went by smoothly and my strength was returning little by little. Kai was always by my side and thank god for my fever cause I could feel my cheeks heat up baaaaddd. Ray had to practically lock Kai in the bathroom to take a shower. It was quite funny to watch, really.

_'Have you finally decided not to ignore what your feeling, Mistress?'_

**'I-I guess so but I can't tell him right now. The final battle is in two days and the last thing he needs right now is me confessing that I like him more than a friend.'**

_'Very well, Mistress. As long as you at least tell him somthing soon.'_

We were all watching 'Van Helsing' in Russian with subtitles when there was a knock on the door. Max answered it and in walks Mr Dickinson with the man from the tape we recieved a while back.

"Dad? What are you doing here?" Tyson exclaimed as he bolted into his dad's arms.

"It's good to see you, son. You've sure grown up quite a bit and I'm here becasue Mr Dickinson asked me to. You remember the tape I sent you about the sacred bitbeasts?...Well there's more to it. You see a few months ago, I was approached by a man named Boris who seemed very interested in my research. He tried to get as much information as he could but I had a bad suspicion about him so I wouldn't budge. After he left, I contacted Mr Dickinson and explained the situation."

I stopped listening after that and shut my eyes to sleep some more.

The next day, we grabbed our things and headed downstairs where a bus was waiting to take us to the World Tournament. Kai insisted on carrying me the entire time and since today was a huge day for them, I kept my mouth shut. He kept me in his arms the whole time and my heart was beating like a friggin' congo frum. I was just prayint that he wouldn't feel or hear it.

"Are you sure you feel better enough to come with us?" Ray asked as he saw me shaking from the excitement and anticipation.

"Ray, I've been cooped up inside that hotelroom for almost a week. My fever's gone and so is my cough. Besides, I have to get out of there and watch you all put the smack down on Boris." I grinned as they laughed.

"Well I'm just glad we're all back together again." Max grinned and all was well and good...until we heard the sound of a helicopter that seemed way too close to be just flying overhead.

Tyson stuck his head out the window to see what the hell was happening but ducked back inside almost immediatly.

"It's the Demolition Boys!" Kai clutched me tightly as the bus started to shake and rock from being attacked.

The bus finally decided that it couldn't take anymore torture as the wheel's popped and the bus started to catch fire after falling on it's side.

"Everyone out! Hurry!" Ray called as he opened the emergency hatch.

Everyone got out quickly and was a safe distance away with the bus finally exploded. Kai refused to set me down as Ian launched his blade at us all. Max launched Draciel for defense but it didn't help the situation when Brian, Spencer and Tala launched their blades too.

"Max, pull back! Before they coax Draciel out, hurry!" I called, realizing their plan but unfortunatly it worked and they took Draciel, knocking Max back.

Ian laughed as the chopper pulled away and dissapeared.

"Max, are you ok?" Tyson called as he ran to his fallen friend.

"They-they took him...They took Draciel." He whispered while shaking as Tyson and Ray knelt down to comfort him.

"Uh guys, I know this is a difficult time and everything but maybe we should start walking." I suggested as I tried to step down out of Kai's arms but his grip was too damn strong.

'DAMN HIM AND HIS BULGING MUSCLES! WHY DOES HIS GRIP HAVE TO BE SO FUCKING STRONG?'

"Kai, you can let me down, ya know. I don't have to be carried everywhere like a helpless idiot." I said but Kai still refused.

"No. Your legs are still weak and you'll just end up stumbling into the snow and we don't have anyway to get you to a doctor if you get sick again."

"Fine." I huffed as he just continued to carry me down the road, bridal style I might add.

Max hurt his ankle when he was thrown back so Tyson was piggybacking him. We walked for maybe fourty-five minutes before we heard the honking of a horn from behind us. Turning, we were approached by a huge charter bus that stopped beside us and out came two familiar faces.

"Oliver! Enrique! Man, are we glad to see you guys!" Tyson exclaimed at they gave us huge grins.

"Hey guys, need a lift?" Oliver offered and we complied gratefully and with no hesitation.

As the bus headed down the road, we explained why we were stranded in the middle of Russia.

"Well sounds like you guys really got a beating. Good thing we came along." Enrique said as the bus came to stop in front of some ancient runes.

"Uh guys, I don't think this is where they finals are being held." I noted as I looked out the window.

_'I believe Oliver and Enrique have a good reason for stopping here, Mistress. Look, there's Robert and Johnny."_

"Guy's I think I'm gonna stay on the bus and take a nap." I said as they all started getting off the bus.

"Okay Ashe, we shouldn't be too long." Ray said and he pulled Kai off with him.

I layed down across one of booth seats in the back and pulled out my I-POD falling asleep to 'Aqua Harp' and 'Love Will Always Win'.

Living Dead Girl - Rob Zombie

Ocean Soul - Nightwish

Resonant Chamber - Avantasia

Foamy - Foamy The Squirrel

Chase The Morning - REPO The Genetic Opera

Passion - Utada Hikaru

There Will Come A Day - Faith Hill

Aqua Harp - AniMusic

Love Will Always Win - Faith Hill


	19. Sorrow Screams From Eyes Of Blue

DISCLAIMER: I OWN NOTHING OF BEYBLADE! I ONLY REALLY OWN JUST ASHE HERSELF. HER BITBEAST ANIVIA, ISN'T MINE. SHE WAS FIRST AND FORMOST CREATED AS A CHARACTER TO PLAY IN THE GAME LEAGUE OF LEGENDS BUT SHE'S JUST SO AWESOME BUT AGAIN I DON'T CLAIM HER AS MY OWN! I'M TRYING TO NOT COPY THE DIALOGUE FROM BEYBLADE BUT I'M ALSO TRYING TO MAKE SURE THAT I DON'T MAKE KAI SOUND LIKE AN IDIOT

ALRIGHT PEOPLE ONE MORE CHAPTER TO GO AFTER THIS ONE!

THEN IT'S ONTO SEASON 2!

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><p>I was shaken awake by Kai while my I-POD was in the middle of playing <span>'It's All Coming Back To Me Now' <span>.

"This had better be good. I was enjoying a pleasant dream of being fed chocolate colored strawberries by Robert Pattinson while Daniel Radcliff was gving me the most glorious back massage ever." I grumbled but laughed at Kai's expression. "Oh my god! You're face is absolutly priceless!" I was laughing so hard I almost fell off the seat.

"Woah, careful there Ashe...And we're at the Tournament. You slept through the whole trip." I stood up on my own and sloely walked to the doors of the bus. "Are you sure you can walk?"

"Yes, Kai. I'm not helpless, ya know." I replied as I stepped down off the bus and looked at the stadium.

'This is it.'

As we all headed inside, Tyson was all pumped up and ready to go, not that I could blame him. I could tell the whole team was pumped and itchin to battle. However there were some consequences to being so pumped. Since Draciel was taken, Max couldn't battle and I was still weak from being sick...that and Kai absolutely refused to have me battle. So the deciding order would go, Kai, Ray, then Tyson. Kai was about to step up to the dish when I called out to him.

"Kai, wait!" he turned around and caught me as I stumbled into his arms. "I-I wanted to give you something for good luck." And after I summoned all the nerves I had in me, I leaned in and gave him a kiss on the cheek while Anivia shrieked in my head with joy.

"Good luck." I whispered before stepping back and went back to the bench.

As Spencer stepped up, he held a tripod with an Ak47 attached on top.(it's the first one that came to mind)

"WHY DOES EVERYONE FEEL THE NEED TO STEAL MY LAUNCHER IDEAS?" I screamed in frustration while the others chuckled slightly.

"Don't worry, Ashe. They're just jealous that they couldn't think of it on their own." Tay said which made me feel a tiny bit better.

"Ashe, can you tell us anything about Spencer, since you...were kinda their teammate?" Kenny asked, choosing his words carefully.

"Unfortunatly, not as much as I'd like. Spencer has a bitbeast called Seaborg, a cybertronic waterspirit. But I didn't get a chance to see him or any of the Demolition Boy's battle before I left. I just hope Dranzer will be ok out there."

But my hopes were in vain. Seaborg beat Dranzer in the first round by using a giant tsunami. Kai stepped off and dissapeared down the hallway during the small break. Every muscle in my body wanted to go after him but both my head and Anivia told me otherwise.

_'There are times when it's better to sit on the sidelines of a battle, than to be in the front of enemy lines, Mistress.'_

Anivia's words always had some kind wisdom attached to it. Kai reamerged a few minutes later and Tyson seemed to spot something in his hand.

"No-no way! He's holding Black Dranzer!"

All of us were shocked at this information and I pleaded in my mind that Kai wouldn't use it.

'Please Kai. I know for a damn fact that you're smarter than this. Don't use Black Dranzer!'

And to everyone's amazement, he didn't.

"You must think I'm a fool to use something that almost cost me the life of not only myself, but my best friend as well!" he shouted to Voltaire before looking back at me. "I won't rist her life like that again! DRANZER, ATTACK!"

Dranzer battled against Seaborg valiantly but lost the battle in the end. Kai seemed upset that Dranzer was taken but he wasn't as upset as I thought he'd be. When he came back towards us, we all tried to comfort him from his loss.

"Don't worry, man. We'll get him back, you can count on it." Tyson promised and I couldn't agree more.

Kai didn't say anything in response but I could tell from the look on his face that he knew Tyson was right as well. He took as seat beside me but didn't say anything more to which I was glad because I was at a loss for words at the moment. As Ray prepared to go up against Bryan, we all gathered adn placed out hands in as a team, including me much to the delight of the others.

"Good luck, my friend." Kai stated and Ray took his place at the special dish where halkd of it spins extreamly fast.

Bryan launched his blade at the dish but he did it a certain way and the dish chipped, sending a small piece flying and scratching Ray's cheek.

"That seems like a dirty trick." I noted aloud.

As the battle commensed, Bryan battle ruthlessly, much like my tactics, and Ray was getting beaten...hard. Bryan's last attack sent Driger out of the dish and flung Ray back onto the floor.

"Ray!" We all went out and brought him into the back room.

I grabbed gauze, bandages and such, immediatly started to tend to Ray's wounds.

"Ray, do you thingk you should go on like this?" Max asked and Ray nodded.

"I need to, Max." he said with determination.

The black haired nekojin was able to make it back to the dish where he and Bryan launched for the second time and again Bryan was completely rutheless. Every attack that Driger sustained caused more pain to Ray and it didn't look like he could last much longer.

"Ray, pull out! You're not gonna be able to make it!" Tyson called out but Ray refused.

"NO! I WON'T GIVE UP! DRIGER, TIGER CLAW ATTACK!" He called and knocked out Bryan's blade.

But the battle had taken it's toll on Ray as he collapsed. Kai and Tyson helped bring him into the back room where Tyson's dad took a look at him.

"I'm not sure how much more his body can take. He's used up all his strength in that last attack."

"Kenny, let me see Driger real quick." I said and the Chief handed him over.

I turned away from the others, knowing what I needed to do.

_'Are you sure you want to go through with this, Mistress? You know what will happen as a consiquence.'_

**'I know, Anivia, but if Ray goes through with this battle, he could die. And I refuse to let that happen, knowing I could've done something to prevent it.' **I said as I bit down on my thumb hard, drawing bood.

Placing my thumb over Driger's bitchip, I let the blood soak in. I pulled away after a few seconds and Driger absorbed the red liquid so now there was no trace on his blade at what I had just done. As Ray struggled to stand, I gave him back Driger.

"Ray, trust in Driger and he'll come through for you." I said as I closed his fist around his blade.

"Thanks Ashe." He responded and he managed to make his way back to the ring.

"Ashe, are you ok? You look kinda pale and your tumb's bleeding." Max pointed out causing the rest of the team to look at me.

"What? I'm always pale and I must've cut my thumb while bandaging Ray." I stated while pulling a bandaid.

"No, Ashe you've never been this pale before...what did you do?" Kai asked, staring down at me.

"N-Nothing, Kai. Now come on, Ray needs out support." I said, desperatly trying to change the subject.

The third round commensed and the blows were thrown. I stood behind the others as wounds started to appear on my body that mimiked the ones Ray was recieving. By giving Driger some of my blood, I gave him some energy from me and Anivia. Now, each blow that Driger recieved, I took the worst of it for the both of them. So I took off my jacket and gloves as gashes and cuts started forming. Blood started dribbling down my chin from my mouth as Ray doubled over from a blow to the gut he sustained but he stayed strond. My breath quickened and my strength wavered.

"Wow, do you think Bryan's holding back cause Ray doesn't seem to be as effected from the battle as the last two times." Max said and I couldn't stand any longer as I collapsed on all fours.

Tyson noticed my absence and turned around only to be totally freaked.

"Holy shit! Ashe, what's happening to you?" He yelled which caused the others to turn adn look at my bloody form with horrified faces.

"Ashe, what's wrong!" Kai immediatly fell to my side as I started coughing up blood. "ASHE!"

"I-I had...to help...R-Ray." My vision started to get blurry from blood loss but I forced myself to stay awake.

'Keep fighting, Ray.'

"DRIGER, FINAL TIGER CLAW ATTACK!" He called as Driger collided with Bryan's blade at full force.

There was a blinding white light and when it dissapeared, Driger was still spinning while Bryan's blade was knocked out.

"Ray...h-he won." I coughed up more blood as he was declared the winner but he could barely stand himself.

Lee and Mariah came out of the stands with Gary and Kevin to help him over to where we were.

"Huh? Ashe? Ashe! What's wrong? What happened to you?" he tried to come over to wehre I was but he couldn't walk very well on his own so Lee helped him over.

"Ashe, what the hell did you do? You have almost the exact same wounds as Ray except more severe! What the hell's going on?" Kai shouted in despare as he held me in his arms, apparently not even caring that I was getting him all bloody.

I looked at the blood on my hand and sighed.

"My blood...I have Driger some of mine and Anivia's combined energy. But in doing so comes with a price. I would sustain the worst of the blows that Driger revieced. Ray was...already...in horrible shape after...the first two rounds...and if he went into battle...like that then he probably...wouldn't have made it...And I couldn't let that happen...knowing there was something I could've done." I explained.

"Oh Ashe, that was so brave!" Mariah started tearing up as Max and Kenny set to work on Ray's wounds after Lee sat him down on the bench.

"You saved his life Ashe and for that, the White Tigers are forever grateful." Lee expressed but I just shook my head.

"It's the least I could do after what I put you all through and for that, I'm sorry." I said as Mariah tended to my wounds while Kai contunued to hold me.

"You don't have to be sorry, Ashe. Tyson and Ray explained what happened to us and the other teams about what happened out on the lake. And we all agreed that it wasn't you and Kai we should blame, but Boris and his crew of horrible people." She explained as I felt a little better with this new information.

"Though I don't think I'll completely regret what I did to Emily. Lousy good for nothing bitch." I growled as Mariah laughed.

"Yeah, I hear ya."

"Thanks Mariah." I whispered and she smiled down at me.

"Of course, that's what friends are for." She said as she held me hand, apparently not caring that it had blood on it.

_'It seems that through this whole indeavor, you've made some new friend's, Mistress.'_

**'Yeah, it seems I have.'** I said as I smiled.

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><p>It's All Coming Back To Me Now - Celine Dion<p> 


	20. One Pure Hope and One Great Desire

DISCLAIMER: I OWN NOTHING OF BEYBLADE! I ONLY REALLY OWN JUST ASHE HERSELF. HER BITBEAST ANIVIA, ISN'T MINE. SHE WAS FIRST AND FORMOST CREATED AS A CHARACTER TO PLAY IN THE GAME LEAGUE OF LEGENDS BUT SHE'S JUST SO AWESOME BUT AGAIN I DON'T CLAIM HER AS MY OWN! I'M TRYING TO NOT COPY THE DIALOGUE FROM BEYBLADE BUT I'M ALSO TRYING TO MAKE SURE THAT I DON'T MAKE KAI SOUND LIKE AN IDIOT

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><p>I want to take this opportunity to personally thank my reviewers, <strong>HotarutheChainMaster<strong>, **beyblade fan 14**, **ShiningHeart of ThunderClan, dream lighting, darkangel856, candylovinchild, **and my three anonomous reviewers **Nicia** and **Nix **and **Anne**.

A shout out thanks to authors **AgnetCoco, HotarutheChainMaster, dream lighting, beyblade fan 14, bluephoenix65069, buddha49, Crimcon22, **and **wildcat717** who added this story to their favorite's list.

And another shout out thanks to authors **AgnetCoco, HotarutheChainmaster, beyblade fan 14, dream lighting, darkangel865, Dragon-Angel123, , Sumi x3, **and **Your Guardian Angel In The Sky** who added this story to their alerts list.

I also want to thank my hundreds of viewers and hiters! Thank you all for your glowing reviews and support through this story. I couldn't have done it without you!

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><p><strong>AND SO WITHOUT FURTHER ADEAU, I PRESENT TO YOU, THE SEASON FINALE OF ICE PRINCESS! BE ON THE LOOK OUT FOR THE SEQUEL, ICE PRINCESS, ICE QUEEN!<strong>

The nice gathering of happiness and friendship was short lived as DJ called for the final two bladers. Kai held me close as Tyson made his way up to the dish where Tala stood on the other side. As the first round began, Dragoon and Wolborg, Tala's cybernetic ice wolf, clashed hard and I could practically feel the impact tremors course through my still beaten body.

"Nnngh." I grunted as I felt the stadium shake.

"Ashe, are you alright?" Kai asked at he looked at me with worry.

"Yeah Kai, I'm fine. You need to stop worrying about me and focus on what's happening. So stop looking at me and focus on helping Tyson." I said, trying to draw the attention off myself.

Luckily, Tyson was the one who got the attention as he beat Tala for round one.

"Way to go, Tyson!" The others cheered while I cracked a genuine smile, but the victory was short-lived.

As the second round began, Tala used Wolborg's power to create an ice storm causing a casum of ice to surround Tala and Tyson.

"What's going on?" Max wondered aloud, asking us all the same question that we wanted answers to.

It was hard to see inside the prison but five minutes later it didn't matter cause when the prison shattered we saw that Tyson had lost round two. Before the third round could begin, we were approached by Judy.

"Ashe, can you come with me for a bit, please?" she asked me and I nodded, stepping out of Kai's grasp.

"No Ashe, you shouldn't go." Kai said in protest as he tried to pull me back but I resisted.

"Kai, I'm fine. I'll be back soon. You should go give Tyson some moral support." I followed Judy to a hallway where the Majestic's stood waiting.

"Hey, Ashe. Boy you look like you've seen better days." Johnny teased but there was no time for me to shoot him as a comeback.

"I've brought you five here because there's the strongest possibility that Tyson may lose this battle and if he does, then you five are the only ones with bitbeasts left who has any hopes of defeating the Demolition Boys." The blonde scientist explained with a heavy heart and I detected fear mingled within as well.

"Don't worry, Judy. I know Tyson will come through for us in the end." Robert said as we turned to watch the rest of the match.

It seemed the Dark Bladers decided to show up and cheer Tyson on as well.

"Don't give up, Tyson! We're all in this together!" Kenny called out.

I wasn't entirely sure what was happening but Tala seemed to go a bit...uh...insane, I guess would be the right word. But Tyson held his own with Dragoon against the multi-bitbeast assalt and as soon as the ice shattered again, the bitbeasts that were taken and captured returned to their masters so Wolborg's power dropped dramatically.

"FINISH THIS, DRAGOON!" The mighty dragon complied and ended the match with Tyson as the final victor.

"THAT'S IT! WE HAVE OUR CHAMPION, TYSON!"

The Magestics and myself headed over to the large group of bladers to congradulate Tyson.

"Nice work, you bonehead." I complimented and Tyson seemed to be too excited to notice that I slipped an insult in as Kai came up beside me.

"Hey Tyson, now that the World Tournament is over, we're no longer teammates so that makes us rivals." He drew his launcher and loaded Dranzer. "So how about a battle?" he challenged with a grin.

Many of the other bladers here wanted to battle Tyson as well and I chuckled softly at the scene before me.

'So I guess, this is the end.' I thought as I backed myself away from the group.

_'Don't forget about Master Kai, Mistress. There's still something that you need to do, remember?'_ Anivia reminded me but I haden't forgotten.

The problem was, trying to tell kai witout everyone staring and watching. My body shook involuntarily at the thought of all those people watchin me confess my feelings to Kai, it sent shivers down my spine. As I closed my eyes to think, I was interrupted by my name being called. I turned to see Kai approach me.

"Oh Kai...Listen, there's something I need to-"

"Hold on, Ashe." Kai interrupted me. "I have something I want to ask you. Even though the World Championships are over, we'll still be here for a few more days. I was wondering...uh." he looked away, a bit nervous. "...would you...come out with me tomorrow?" His cheeks flushed a but his eyes made contact with mine and I could feel my own cheeks heat up as well.

"You...you mean like o-on a date?" I stuttered, trying to keep my words together.

"Y-Yeah. I mean...uh..."

"Sure Kai...I'd like that." I mustered up an answer and he sighed with relief.

"Awesome." I have to go see to a few things now that my grandfather and Boris were arrested. Because I'm the only Hiwatari left, I inherit everything Voltaire owned. But I have to go see some people but I'll come get you at the hotel tomorrow around three?" he asked a bit more confidentaly this time.

"Uh...okay." I managed to answer back as my voice was still a bit shakey.

"Great, I'll see you tomorrow." He gave me a smile before heading out.

The rest of us headed back to the hotel where Mr D. treated us all to dinner in celebration of Tyson's victory.

"So how come Kai's not here to celebrate with us?" Tyson managed to ask as he continued to stuff his face.

"Well, since he's Voltaire's grandson, he's suppposed to inherit what Voltaire had since he's been arrested. But in order for him to do that, he's got to go and meet with the lawyers and such. Hopefully, you'll see him before you all leave in a few days." Mr Dickinson explained to the others which took a lot of pressure off my shoulders.

_'Are you nervous about tomorrow, Mistress?" It's quite normal to be on edge for a first date.'_

**'To be honest Anivia, I'm petrified. I have no idea what to do, what to say or eve what to wear...Crap, I have to get some clothes! Oh god, oh god!'**

My mind started racing as I ate so I finished eating what I could manage before turning to my now former teammate.

"Hey Ray, do you know where the White Tigers are staying? I need to ask Mariah something." Ray and the others seemed a tiny bit confused at my random question but he smiled and answered.

"Yeah, actually they're staying two floors below us in 1309."

"Thanks Ray. I'll see you guys later." I grabbed my coat and headed to the room and knocked.

Mariah answered which eased my nerves a bit.

"Hey Ashe, what's up?"

"I need your help. Are the others here?" And thankfully she shook her head no.

"Nah, they're out doing some exploring before we have to head back home. HWy?"

"Well...I-uh-I kinda have a date tomorrow and-"

The pink haired nekojin's eyes lit up in delight and she pulled me into the room and onto one of the beds there.

"You have a date? With who?"

"K-Kai...He asked me after the tournament. But that's the problem. I've never been on a date before so I don't know what to do or what to wear or anything." I groaned as I held my head in my hands.

"Ashe, relax. It's ok to feel this way about a first date. Now what time are you going out tomorrow?"

"Around three."

"Okay, first thing we need to do is go shopping. We'll get you some new clothes to wear but we should go now."

She grabbed my hand and hauled me out the door and into the hellish world of shopping. I turned down anything pink right away along with miniskirts. The last thing I needed tomorrow was Kai getting arrested for beating someone to a pulp for hitting on me. After muh denying and trying things on, I finally decided on a ruffled onyx ankle skirt with an onyx colored top that crisscrossed in the front and tied in the back with wide shoulder straps topped off an evergreen velvet jacket. Mariah found a set of earrings and necklace called, 'Queen of the Night', that had black and emerald crystals that hung for a kind of dramatic effect. Our final touch were black heeled combat boots that laced up the front to the knee. So after spending almost four-hundred dollars on an outfit for tomorrow, we gatherd our bags, cause Mariah got some things too, we headed back to the hotel around nine-thirty.

"Alright, I'll come up to your room tomorrow around one-thirty and we'll get you all fixed up and ready. Just remember to take a shower before I come up."

"Yes, ma'am." I joked, giving her a mock salute.

We laughed and said goodnight before I headed inside the room to see the boys watching tv.

"There you are, Ashe. Where've you been?" Max asked as Tyson stole the bowl of popcorn they were sharing as I flopped down on my bed and sighed.

"I just went shopping with Mariah...big mistake." Ray chuckled.

"I could've told you that. What'd you go shopping for?"

"New clothes for tomorrow." I blurted out without thinking.

'Oh shit.'

"Ooooooooooooo, what's tomorrow? Huh? HUH?" Tyson was jumping up and down like crazy.

_'You may as well tell them, Mistress. They'll find out eventually.' _I sighed heavily.

"I...I kind of...have a date tomorrow...with K-Kai."

All the guys fell out of their chairs in complete and utter shock.

"WHAT? YOU AND MR SOURPUSS ARE GOING ON A DATE? HOW THE HELL DID YOU EVEN MANAGE THAT?" Tyson cried out while I just sweatdropped at his reaction.

"He _asked_ me, you idiot. Mariah's coming up tomorrow to help me get ready and anyone who so much as cracks a pun about me, Kai or anything about tomorrow will have both of their kneecaps blown out, got it?" I threatened coldly and immediatly Tyson shut his mouth, so the rest of the night was peaceful.

The next morning my body had decided to skip my morning training because when I woke up, it was after nine.

**'Aw shit! Anivia, why didn't you wake me up when I didn't get up for training this morning!'**

_'Relax, Mistress. I let you sleep because today is a big day for you. Plus it helped your body recover from yesterday. Now relax and go get something to eat before getting in the shower. Mariah will be here around one-thirty to help you get ready.'_

Taking a deep breath, I did as she told me and got some food out of the mini-fridge. Luckily, Tyson hadn't eaten it all. Speaking of, the boys were gone but that gave me some time to take a nice relaxing bath with some the new lilac and rose bath salts that I bought last night. I brought my I-POD and speakers in with me, locking the bathroom door just in case. As I sank my body beneath the warm water, I turned on the jets to massage my body while my I-POD played, 'Energize Me', 'My Little Phoenix', 'Over The Hills And Far Away', 'Angels', 'The Plague', 'Keep Tryin'', 'Deep River', 'Point Of No Return', and 'Batty Rap'. As the water started to coold down, the clock read, twelve-thirty so I drained the water, covered my I-POD and took a shower, reamerging fifteen minutes later. I wrapped a while hotel towel around my body because I figured it would be easier than to walk out into the room with just a towel, especially since i didn't know if the boy's were back. Turn's out they were and Mariah was there too.

"Ooooooo, there you are. I know I said one-thirty but I was so excited, I couldn't wait." She grabbed my bags and ushered me back into the bathroom where she locked the door saying that this door wasn't opening until we were done.

NO MATTER WHAT

She pulled my wet hair up in a turban towel and I put the clothes on. Then she sat me down and pulled out some dark emerald green nailpolish. As my nails dried, she took down my hair, blowdrying and straightening it at the same time. Then she pulled pieces of the front sides together in the back and clipped it with a green rose hairclip that we bought to match. Once we were sure my nails were good, dry and unsmudgable, I laced up my boots and Mariah placed in my earrings and necklace, adding only a tiny bit of makeup because according to her I was didn't need a lot since I was already really pretty...but I don't believe her. When the clock read two fourty-five, she declared me done and giggled excitidly.

"Oh god, Kai is gonna drool when he sees you." she squealed as she unlocked the door.

"Mariah, are you done yet cause I- HOLY MOTHER OF GOD!" Tyson shouted as he looked at me with shock.

"What? Do I have something on my face?" I asked but the others shook their heads with gaping mouths.

"Nu-uh." Max answered.

"Ashe, you look...wonderful." Ray whispered as Mariah led me over to the vanity mirror.

What I saw shocked me. I almost looked like a completely different person.

"Now come on, it's almost three and Kai will be waiting so let's go." She helped me into my new green velvet jacket and pulled me out the door, through the hall and into the elevator making me leave my gun and launcher behind but Anivia was tucked into my jacket pocket.

As she pressed the button for the lobby, she gave me one of her kitty grins.

"This is so exciting! Are you nervous?"

"As can be...I have no idea what to expect. Even though Kai and I have been friends since we were young, he can still be unpredictable at times so I have no idea what to expect from him today...Oh I don't know if I can do this, Mariah."

"Oh no you don't. You're not giving up now because of a small case of nerves. The Ashe I know, sort of, would walk out of this elevator with her head held high."

_'She's right, Mistress. You can do this, just have faith in yourself.'_

The elevator dinged as he landed and I took a deep breath before stepping out.

"When you come back, I want details!" The nekojin giggles as I sweatdropped but nodded before heading towards to doors and outside where I was greeted by a horsedrawn carriage, much like the one I rode in the night I visited my Father's grave.

_**"Are you, Miss Ashe?"**_ The driver asked me adn I nodded slowly, wondering what was going on. _**"Please, this way. Mr Hiwatari is expecting you."**_ He helped me into the carriage where there was a blue rose waiting on top of the black blanket.

'Aw, how sweet.'

I tucked the rose behind my ear and we were off to...I have no idea where. We rode for almost fifteen minutes before coming to a stop in front of a dome building where Kai was waiting out front. He wore black dressdown pants with a white long sleeved poloshirt with a nice dark blue jacket clutched in one hand, thrown over his shoulder.

'Son...of a...bitch...Hottie alert rising rapidly!'

His amber eyes widened when he approached the carriage. He opened the door and helped me out, taking in a full view of what I looked like as I did the same to him.

"Wow, Ashe you...you look beautiful." He whispered.

"Thanks, Kai...You look really handsome yourself."

'Oh my god, I can't believe I finally said that out loud.'

He offered me his arm and led me inside the building which was completely empty.

"Um, Kai where are we and why is this place dead empty?" I asked while looking around, trying to get a better understanding of where we were.

"This is the Empty Planet planetarium and we have it all to ourselves for the next four hours." My eyes widened as my mouth dropped.

He led me into a room where there were fifty or sixty seats seated underneith the huge dome ceiling.

"I know how much you love looking at the satrs and since you don't get to see them very often, that you'd really like to see this." He led me to the seats in the middle back and pressed a button that started to program.

Throughout the while thing, we held hands and exchanged glances every now and then. It was such a romantic setting, sitting beneath the starts, alone as if we were the only two people in the world. As the program came to an end, my phone read seven fifteen. The date seemed to go by so fast that I hadn't noticed we were sitting there for so long. Kai led me back outside where the carriage was waiting again. He helped me inside and sat down beside me, pulling the blanket over us both as the ride commensed. He wrapped his arm around my shoulders, pulling me close as I shivered a bit as the driver took us through the dimply lit town to a cliff's edge where we could see the sun setting beyond the mountain range.

"Kai...I had a wonderful time today. This has to be the best first date ever...for anyone. Thank you." I leaned up and gave him a small kiss on the cheek.

"Ashe, the reason I asked you out today...was because I had to tell you something...And before I just didn't really know how to say it." As he looked down at me with those beautiful amber eyes, I could feel my heart pounding a mile a minute. "Ashe, I like you...I mean...I like you ore than just as a friend. I'm always thinking about you and I've tried for so long to deny my feelings but-" But I silenced him by placing my fingers gently on his lips.

"Kai, wait. Let me speak before you go on. There's been something I've been wanting to say but I couldn't for too many reasons. I also have stronger than friendship feelings for you. I wanted to tell you yesterday but then when you asked me out, I thought I should wait and see what would happen."

A true genuine smile crossed his face as he held both my hands in his.

"Ashe, if you'll let me...I'd like to...What I mean to say it...uh...will you be my girlfriend?" He managed to stutter out and I nodded.

"Yes, Kai. I will."

_'FINALLY!'_ Anivia cheered in my head.

"Then I think my first act as your boyfriend should be this."

And he captured my lips with his own, surprising me emensly.

'My first date and my first kiss...Maybe there is a god whose on my side.'

I smiled as I kissed him back, wrapping my arms around his neck, pulling him closer as he pulled me closer by encircling his arms around my waist. When he finally broke apart for air, he hugged me close and we watched the rest of the sunset together.

"Ya know, as we were kissing I was half expecting Tyson to interrupt us somehow." I giggled as I rested my head on his shoulder.

"Yeah, but it's a good thing he didn't or else I'd use your gun to shoot the hell out of him." I laughed again at the image as Kai chuckled himself.

"That might've been a problem since Mariah made me leave my gun and launcher back at the hotel room."

"Damn." He playfully growled and I giggled again.

"Kai, what's going to happen now...I mean, now that the World Championship is over, what does that mean for us?"

He stayed silent for a short bit, as if thinking over what I just asked.

"Well to be honest, I wanted to try and go to this school my Father went to, though it's a prep school and I'd be attending in Germany. I never really could be a normal kid but now I feel like I could. But I don't want to just up and leave you behind where I'd only be able to see you on holidays and such."

I knew he really wanted to do this and I had no right to stop him.

"Then you should go, Kai. If it's something you really wnat to do then you should just go and do it. We can still keep in contact and to be honest it's not like you're going halfway around the world. Just a few hours flight, maybe less depending on the weather. We can make this work...besides if we don't even try, I'm pretty sure Dranzer and Anivia will chew out both our asses." I joked and my pocket went cold in response.

"Alright Ashe, I believe you."

As our date came to an end, he brought me back to the hotel.

"I'd come up with you but I still have somthings to take care of before we leave tomorrow." He said but I shook my head.

"It's ok, Kai. Besides, I promised Mariah that I'd go see her before the end of the night." Kai smiled as he took me in his arms one last time, followed by a passionate kiss.

"Goodnight, Ashe."

"Night Kai."

Though I said hello to the future that fate held in it's unpredictable hands.

* * *

><p>Energize Me - After Forever<p>

My Little Phoenix - Tarja Turunen

Over the Hills and Far Away - Nightwish

Angels - Within Temptation

The Plagues - The Prince of Egypt

Keep Tryin' - Utada Hikaru

Deep River - Utada Hikaru

Point of No Return - The Phantom of the Opera

Batty Rap - Ferngully The Last Rainforest

* * *

><p><strong>THAT'S IT! ICE PRINCESS HAS COME TO AN END BUT LIKE THE PHOENIX, OUT OF THE ASHES OF THIS STORY SHALL ARISE IT'S SEQUEL: ICE PRINCESS, ICE QUEEN.<strong>

**BE ON THE LOOK OUT FOR IT WITHIN THE NEXT TWO WEEKS CAUSE COME MONDAY WILL BE THE START OF A LOKI STORY THAT WON'T BE MORE THAN 10 CHAPTERS OR SO. DURING WHICH TIME I WILL BE WORING ON SEASON 2.**


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